Project Summary
Estimates of the effects of deploying large fleets of shared autonomous vehicles (SAVs) vary from large negative effects (e.g., more and longer trips) to large positive effects (e.g., reduced traffic, emissions, and energy use). Understanding who will share a ride in an SAV and under what conditions is critical to producing credible estimates of the potential for SAVs to affect passenger travel and its economic, energy, and emissions consequences, for both passengers and the providers of incumbent travel modes and of SAVs. The first task of this research is a literature review to frame the following research question: How will personal space and privacy affect whether and how different consumer groups are willing to share rides with strangers in SAVs? This research not only explores personal space and privacy in SAVs, but also examines how differing concepts of personal space and privacy in different modes affect transitions to SAVs. This is required because SAVs will be a new way to travel; without SAVs people can continue to make any trip by existing modes. Thus, our second task will be four to six exploratory interviews regarding SAVs with consumers who presently travel by different travel modes. This exploratory task frames these two research questions: What are the dimensions of personal space and privacy in existing travel modes (e.g., private car, public bus or rail, taxi, shared vehicles, etc.) and how might those dimensions shift to accommodate a switch to SAVs? More research will be needed, therefore our third task is to develop a research agenda, including detailed methodology and survey and interview instruments, which we hope to secure further funding to conduct subsequently.