Autonomous Vehicles Acceptance: A Perceived Risk Extension of Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology and Diffusion of Innovation, Evidence from Tehran, Iran

This research integrates Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) (Performance Expectancy [PE], Effort Expectancy [EE], and Social Influence) with Diffusion of Innovation Theory (TRialability [TR] and OBservability [OB]) as well as Perceived Risk (PR) to identify a wider set of latent factors affecting acceptance of fully automated AVs. Although research on AVs acceptance has been conducted in developed countries, it is a rather new topic in developing countries, where it has only been introduced as a promising technology to come. Structural equation modeling on stated preference surveys data of 641 Tehran residents in 2019 justifies the proposed integration of two theories and PR. Only PR shows an expected negative sign (−0.2); Among UTAUT variables, PE (0.33) and EE (0.25) were the most and least influential factors, respectively. Regression weights of DOI-related variables show that TR (0.17) and OB (0.16) have almost equal effect.