Sending Autonomous Vehicles to Pick-Up, Deliver, and Run Errands: Sustainability Implications 

Abstract
Emerging autonomous vehicles (AVs) promise a technological revolution that will potentially transform the current urban transportation system landscape. Despite their potential benefits, it is still unclear whether AVs may create more problems than they solve, especially when it comes to their impacts on sustainability. For instance, a future where AVs undertake pick-ups, deliveries, and errands may lead to increased number of trips and longer trip distances. In search of better prices and with access to more options, people may send their AVs to pick-up groceries, laundry, and food orders from more distant places, while also generating new zero-occupant vehicle trips. Further, people may not chain their discretionary and personal business trips with other mandatory trips as AVs can fulfill such trip needs on their own – resulting in a loss of efficiency that trip chaining brings. This implies that the success of AVs as a sustainable mobility tool depends on how, and the extent to which, people would adopt and deploy them. This paper presents an in-depth exploration of the individuals’ willingness and level of interest to use AVs for pick-ups, deliveries, and running errands on their own. The analysis utilizes data collected through a Transformative Technologies in Transportation Survey that was conducted in 2019. The data set includes information from more than 1,000 participants in the Greater Phoenix Metropolitan Area of Arizona. As attitudes and behaviors are inextricably linked to one another, a variety of attitudinal variables are analyzed in conjunction with various socio-demographic attributes, lifestyle preferences, technology usage patterns, and variables describing current online shopping behaviors. The relationship between attitudes and willingness to use AVs for personal errands is explicitly considered to help identify policy interventions and awareness campaigns that may help advance sustainable use of AVs in an AV future. The findings of this study will help cities to leverage emerging transportation services in a way that strikes a balance between addressing the sustainability of their transportation systems and meeting the mobility needs of their citizens.