What drives parental acceptance of autonomous shuttle? Insights from a multigroup structural equation model

Kurzfassung

The number of parents taking their children to school and other activities by car has increased greatly resulting in reduced independent travel among children. Girls are accompanied by their parents to an older age compared to boys. Despite an increasing number of initiatives and technological measures (e.g. mobility apps) aimed at fostering children’s independent mobility, their actual impact remains largely unclear due to insufficient empirical evaluation. To adequately assess the effectiveness of such measures, it is essential to systematically include parents´ perspective as key decision-makers and to develop an instrument that reliably captures their acceptance of solutions promoting their children’s independent mobility. Using the case of autonomous shuttle buses (SAE Level 5), an online-vignette-study was conducted (N = 305) to examine the factors influencing parents´ acceptance of such services for their children. Grounded in the technology acceptance model, a model is proposed explaining parental acceptance of autonomous shuttle buses for independent mobility of their children. The results of a multigroup structural equation model indicate that the gender of the child appears to play less of a moderating role. The influencing factors vary depending on trip purpose (i.e., school or leisure trips). Therefore, the trip purpose should be taken into account in future models.