Public Expectations Regarding the Longer-term Implications of and Regulatory Changes for Autonomous Driving: A Contribution to the Debate on its Social Acceptance

Social acceptance is seen as an important prerequisite for a successful adoption and diffusion of automated driving technologies and services. The paper presents a proposal about how social acceptance could be conceptualized and argues that expectations and promises regarding the role of autonomous driving in future mobility systems should play an important role here. It then provides first results of a representative survey among German citizens, focusing on their individual expectations on the longer-term effects of the widespread use of autonomous road vehicles as well as on their opinions on changes of framework conditions and regulations associated with their diffusion and deployment.