Attitudes Toward Shared Autonomous on Demand Mobility: An Analysis of User Experience with Hyundai’s BotRide System in Irvine, CA 

Abstract
Shared autonomous zero-emission vehicles have the potential to reduce road congestion, enhance safety, drastically cut emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases from the transportation sector, and increase the mobility of various groups (e.g., poor carless households, immigrants, or the elderly) who currently cannot drive or do not own a motor vehicle (Thrun, 2010; Ross, 2014; Fagnant & Kockelman, 2015; Beiker, 2016; Lenz & Fraedrich, 2016; Pavone, 2016). However, the success of this new generation of transportation systems depends on its public acceptance and its affordability, in addition to changes in infrastructure (Fagnant & Kockelman, 2015; Lenz & Fraedrich, 2016; Pavone, 2016), bringing us closer to smart cities (Xiang, Tussyadiah, & Buhalis, 2015). To study consumer acceptance of autonomous ride-sharing systems and explore various commercialization alternatives, we analyzed data (N=1,279) from a web-based survey of residents of Irvine (California) who showed interest or participated in BotRide, a free shared ride-hailing pilot program that operated a fleet of autonomous Hyundai KONA electric SUVs from November 4, 2019 to January 31, 2020, just after this expiration of this program. This program involved a collaboration between Hyundai, Pony.ai (an autonomous vehicle technology company co-located in California and China), and Via (a transportation network company). Survey participants included UC Irvine students, city of Irvine employees, and members of the public. While over 60 percent of participants took at least a ride just to try BotRide out, 42 percent used BotRide for shopping, 38 percent to go out to eat, and 29 percent for their daily commute. During rides, participants looked at the vehicle’s AI visualization (28.5 percent), used social media, rested, or talked to the vehicle overseers (~21 percent each), worked (10.7 percent), or read a book or played games (7 percent each). For participants, BotRide was the alternative to driving their own vehicle (34.9 percent), ride-hailing (34.2 percent), and taking the bus (only 12.2 percent). Price (the system was free) was their most important consideration (36.4 percent), followed by “no parking hassle” (25.4 percent) and convenience (21.2 percent). Safety, productivity, and comfort were important only for 11 to 13 percent of respondents. In addition, our discrete choice models (Train, 2009) shed some light on the number of stops users are willing to accept, safety, and their preferences for various forms of commercialization of shared autonomous taxis, including payment per ride versus a flat monthly fee for unlimited rides. Results from this study should be useful to firms that are considering offering shared autonomous on-demand mobility services, but also to transit operators, and to transportation planners.