TY - JOUR
T1 - Attitudes Toward Four Levels of Self-Driving Technology Among Elderly Drivers
AU - Lajunen, Timo
AU - Sullman, Mark J.M.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to acknowledge the kind assistance of Mr. Antonios Kagialis for his help with advertising this study on Facebook.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright © 2021 Lajunen and Sullman.
PY - 2021/6/23
Y1 - 2021/6/23
N2 - Automatization and autonomous vehicles can drastically improve elderly drivers' safety and mobility, with lower costs to the driver and the environment. While autonomous vehicle technology is developing rapidly, much less attention and resources have been devoted to understanding the acceptance, attitudes, and preferences of vehicle automatization among driver groups, such as the elderly. In this study, 236 elderly drivers (≥65 years) evaluated four vehicles representing SAE levels 2–5 in terms of safety, trustworthiness, enjoyment, reliability, comfort, ease of use, and attractiveness, as well as reporting preferences for vehicles employing each of the four levels of automation. The results of a repeated-measures ANOVA showed that the elderly drivers rated the SAE level 2 vehicle highest and the fully automated vehicle (SAE 5) lowest across all attributes. The preference for the vehicle declined as a function of increasing automatization. The seven attributes formed an internally coherent “attitude to automatization” scale, a strong correlate of vehicle preference. Age or annual mileage were not related to attitudes or preferences for automated vehicles. The current study shows that elderly drivers' attitudes toward automatization should be studied further, and these results should be taken into account when developing automated vehicles. The full potential of automatization may not be realized if elderly drivers are ignored.
AB - Automatization and autonomous vehicles can drastically improve elderly drivers' safety and mobility, with lower costs to the driver and the environment. While autonomous vehicle technology is developing rapidly, much less attention and resources have been devoted to understanding the acceptance, attitudes, and preferences of vehicle automatization among driver groups, such as the elderly. In this study, 236 elderly drivers (≥65 years) evaluated four vehicles representing SAE levels 2–5 in terms of safety, trustworthiness, enjoyment, reliability, comfort, ease of use, and attractiveness, as well as reporting preferences for vehicles employing each of the four levels of automation. The results of a repeated-measures ANOVA showed that the elderly drivers rated the SAE level 2 vehicle highest and the fully automated vehicle (SAE 5) lowest across all attributes. The preference for the vehicle declined as a function of increasing automatization. The seven attributes formed an internally coherent “attitude to automatization” scale, a strong correlate of vehicle preference. Age or annual mileage were not related to attitudes or preferences for automated vehicles. The current study shows that elderly drivers' attitudes toward automatization should be studied further, and these results should be taken into account when developing automated vehicles. The full potential of automatization may not be realized if elderly drivers are ignored.
KW - attitudes
KW - autonomous vehicle
KW - elderly drivers
KW - preferences
KW - SAE levels
KW - sustainable transportation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109313553&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682973
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.682973
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85109313553
VL - 12
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 682973
ER -