What drives people to accept automated vehicles? Findings from a field experiment

This field study aims at understanding the influence of direct experience of an automated vehicle (AV, Level 3) and explaining and predicting public acceptance of AVs through a psychological model. The model includes behavioral intention (BI) to use self-driving vehicles (SDVs, Level 5), willingness to re-ride (WTR) in our AV (Level 3), and their four potential determinants, namely perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU), trust related to SDVs, and perceived safety (PS) while riding in our AV. The last two determinants are largely ignored, but we consider them critical in the context of AVs. Three-hundred students were invited as participants (passengers) to experience the AV. The trust, PU, PEU, and BI of the participants were recorded prior to their experiencing the AV; after this experience, all the constructs of the psychological model were recorded. The participants’ experience with the AV was found to increase their trust, PU and PEU (but not BI), the consistency between PU/PEU and BI, and the explanatory power of BI. The model explained 55% of the variance in BI and 40% in WTR. PU, trust, and PS were found to be steady and direct predictors of both the acceptance measures; PEU predicted BI only after the participants’ AV experience. Mediation analysis showed that trust also can indirectly affect AV acceptance through other determinants. Out-of-sample prediction confirmed the model’s predictive capability for AV acceptance. The theoretical contributions and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

An empirical investigation on consumers’ intentions towards autonomous driving

Major steps towards implementation of autonomous and connected transport are being taken nowadays. The trend of automation technology being used in vehicles by the most important vehicle manufacturing industries is expected to move closer to high or fully Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) through technological advancements in sectors of robotics and artificial intelligence. Vehicles with autonomous driving capabilities are planning to be available on market, in full scale, in the next years. In the longer term substantial benefits are mainly expected for accessibility to transport, safety, traffic flow, emissions, fuel use and comfort. All these potential societal benefits will not be achieved unless AVs are accepted and used by a critical mass of people. Addressing these challenges, this paper: (a) proposes a technology acceptance modelling process by extending the original Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to explain and predict consumers’ intensions towards AVs, (b) based on the proposed TAM-extended framework, a 30-question survey was conducted in order to investigate the factors influencing consumers’ intensions to use and accept AVs. Results show that the constructs of perceived usefulness, perceived ease to use, perceived trust and social influence, are all useful predictors of behavioral intentions to have or use AVs, with perceived usefulness having the strongest impact. The insights derived from this study could significantly contribute to ongoing research related to technology acceptance of AVs and are expected to allow automobile industries to improve their design and technology.     

Mainstream consumers driving plug-in battery-electric and plug-in hybrid electric cars: A qualitative analysis of responses and evaluations

Plug-in electric vehicles can potentially emit substantially lower CO₂ emissions than internal combustion engine vehicles, and so have the potential to reduce transport emissions without curtailing personal car use. Assessing the potential uptake of these new categories of vehicles requires an understanding of likely consumer responses. Previous in-depth explorations of appraisals and evaluations of electric vehicles have tended to focus on ‘early adopters’, who may not represent mainstream consumers. This paper reports a qualitative analysis of responses to electric cars, based on semi-structured interviews conducted with 40 UK non-commercial drivers (20 males, 20 females; age 24-70 years) at the end of a seven-day period of using a battery electric car (20 participants) or a plug-in hybrid car (20 participants). Six core categories of response were identified: (1) cost minimisation; (2) vehicle confidence; (3) vehicle adaptation demands; (4) environmental beliefs; (5) impression management; and, underpinning all other categories, (6) the perception of electric cars generally as ‘work in progress’ products. Results highlight potential barriers to the uptake of current-generation (2010) plug-in electric cars by mainstream consumers. These include the prioritization of personal mobility needs over environmental benefits, concerns over the social desirability of electric vehicle use, and the expectation that rapid technological and infrastructural developments will make current models obsolete. Implications for the potential uptake of future electric vehicles are discussed.     

论打造广西特色治超执法新模式的必要性和意义

文章针对广西治超执法情况的特点及存在的主要问题，分析了新形势下进行广西治超新模式改革的必要性，介绍了广西公路部门实施的治超执法新模式和手段，总结了广西特色治超执法模式改革取得的成绩。     

桥梁承台筑岛围堰施工技术

文章结合工程实例,对桥梁承台筑岛围堰施工的工艺流程、要点及注意事项进行了详细介绍,为类似桥梁承台围堰施工提供参考。     

浅谈企业如何有效地申报科研计划项目

企业作为市场的主体,是推动国家科技创新和技术进步的主要力量,而开展科技项目申报,是政府利用计划和市场手段对企业科学研究和技术开发进行引导的主要手段。因此,面向企业开展企业科技申报对实现科技创新起着至关重要的作用。本文主要从科研管理的角度,介绍了科研项目的分类及申报过程,积极探索提高项目申报质量的有效途径,以期为企业科研管理部门提供有益的借鉴。     

就DM—55型闭路强制循环导热油加热沥青系统谈科技成果评审的价值取向

本文以1990年5月通过鉴定的“DM-55型闭路强制循环导热油加热沥青系统”成果为依据,就其产品的命名,工艺设备本身的安全性,可靠性、先进性等阐述了作者的观点,并对该成果的推广使用提出了几点建设性意见,最终提出了对科技成果,即新产品、新工艺、新设备的评价,要做到多种价值取向,多方位、多层次考虑,才可能利于其推广发展的新见解。     

水泥混凝土路面湿法泵喷特种砂浆快速修补机械与工艺的试验研究

通过对水泥混凝土路面快速修补机械与工艺的试验研究，研制出适用于水泥混凝土路面大面积罩面的砂浆湿法泵喷射机，并提出了与之配套的修补工艺。     

船体分段无余量建造与分段中合拢的实践

造船企业在客观建造条件下,最大化地扩大分段无余量建造程度,改善与提高中合拢的工艺技术以及各部门之间的管理协调,能有效遏制分段建造过程中出现的质量问题,提高船舶建造精度,扩大预舾装程度,缩短造船周期,降低造船成本。本文主要就分段无余量建造和中合拢工艺以及各部门之间的协调管理进行一定的实践阐述。     

基于虚拟样机技术的磁力轴承的联合仿真

以磁力轴承为研究对象,在前期研究中已建立的磁力轴承的结构模型的基础上,利用机械动力学软件ADAMS和数值计算软件MATLAB两者的优势建立仿真系统对磁力轴承进行联合仿真控制。仿真结果证实了该联合控制方法的可行性,为磁力轴承虚拟设计研究提供了一个方法。