Virtual reality Experiment to study the Role of social Conformity in the acceptance of Autonomous vehicles
Lead Research Organisation:
Newcastle University
Department Name: Sch of Engineering
Abstract
Context. Many governments worldwide are introducing new plans to promote and anticipate the recent rapid development of automation. In this international scenario, the UK is playing a leading role. As stated by John Hayes MP "The UK is increasingly seen as one of the best places in the world for connected and autonomous vehicles" (Cohen et al., 2017). The economic and societal benefits of autonomous vehicles are foreseen to be enormous (up to Euros 17tn to GDP). But, these benefits could be jeopardised if users fail to adopt the technology. The recent scoping study (Cohen et al., 2017) commissioned by the Department for Transport, clearly highlights that "it is impossible to say whether full automation will happen (ostensibly a technical question) without asking at the same time whether there would be a substantial consumer interest in purchasing/using such products and whether widespread deployment would be societally acceptable. Hence, almost all useful questions about AVs have at least a social or behavioural component."
In response to this urgent need, the project aims to take advantage of virtual reality technologies, which have made significant progress in the last decade in computer games, to use them in a scientific context to understand and then model users' acceptance of Fully Autonomous Vehicles (FAVs). The project aims to understand what are the conditions under which citizens will accept to move (live, work etc.) in an urban environment where traffic will include FAVs or it will be formed only of FAVs and use them as a public transport system.
In order to achieve the research overall aim, the project set the following specific objectives:
- Understand to which extent the acceptance of FAVS is affected by how much familiar we can get with this highly technological and innovative product and by what other people around us (people we know but also people that we do not know) think about and how they behave with respect to FAVs.
- Develop a new method for studying acceptance of innovative products, which includes a method to collect the information from customers and a method to analyse this data that can be used then to take policy and industrial decisions that affect every day citizens' life.
- Test the benefit of the experiment created to be used across the population to help people (in particular specific categories like older people) to live in and adapt to the forthcoming new technological urban environments.
Potential applications and benefits.
This research will add extensive value to the critical discussions about adoption and diffusion of FAVs and about the policy incentives that should be given to foster the market. The results from this research will have Social, Economic, Industrial and Academic impacts. The results from this research will allow the quantification of the economic and societal benefits of FAVs with the important potential benefit of reducing the risks associated with the current huge investments that governments (in the UK and worldwide) are currently making on AVs deployment. These results from this project will also guide local and national governments to develop policies that can facilitate the sustainable, rapid, and least-disruptive growth of these technologies and services, investing public money in a more cost-effective way. The usability of Virtual Reality environment to social contexts will open opportunities for new applications. The application of the VR environment created can potentially be extended to study cases of autism where VR experiments have already proved to provide significant benefits.
In response to this urgent need, the project aims to take advantage of virtual reality technologies, which have made significant progress in the last decade in computer games, to use them in a scientific context to understand and then model users' acceptance of Fully Autonomous Vehicles (FAVs). The project aims to understand what are the conditions under which citizens will accept to move (live, work etc.) in an urban environment where traffic will include FAVs or it will be formed only of FAVs and use them as a public transport system.
In order to achieve the research overall aim, the project set the following specific objectives:
- Understand to which extent the acceptance of FAVS is affected by how much familiar we can get with this highly technological and innovative product and by what other people around us (people we know but also people that we do not know) think about and how they behave with respect to FAVs.
- Develop a new method for studying acceptance of innovative products, which includes a method to collect the information from customers and a method to analyse this data that can be used then to take policy and industrial decisions that affect every day citizens' life.
- Test the benefit of the experiment created to be used across the population to help people (in particular specific categories like older people) to live in and adapt to the forthcoming new technological urban environments.
Potential applications and benefits.
This research will add extensive value to the critical discussions about adoption and diffusion of FAVs and about the policy incentives that should be given to foster the market. The results from this research will have Social, Economic, Industrial and Academic impacts. The results from this research will allow the quantification of the economic and societal benefits of FAVs with the important potential benefit of reducing the risks associated with the current huge investments that governments (in the UK and worldwide) are currently making on AVs deployment. These results from this project will also guide local and national governments to develop policies that can facilitate the sustainable, rapid, and least-disruptive growth of these technologies and services, investing public money in a more cost-effective way. The usability of Virtual Reality environment to social contexts will open opportunities for new applications. The application of the VR environment created can potentially be extended to study cases of autism where VR experiments have already proved to provide significant benefits.
Planned Impact
The research proposed is highly interdisciplinary. The theories and the methodology developed in this research, as well as the results obtained will be useful far beyond the specific context of application of autonomous vehicles or the broader transport field. As described in the section Academic beneficiaries, this research will be of interest for researchers in an ample spectrum of fields (behavioural analysis, economics, psychology, demand modelling, data collection) and diverse contexts of application (education, social exclusion, environment, urban planning, safety, food, health, agriculture, energy, video game, etc.).
The results obtained from this research will impact the following groups:
- Policy makers at national level. The results from this research will, for the first time, allow the quantification of the economic and societal benefits of FAVs, based on the rigorous estimation of the user's adoption of FAVs. This will reduce the risks associated with the current huge investments that governments (in the UK and worldwide) are currently making on AVs deployment. These results will affect policy decisions surrounding the cost of technical development, the creation of product trials, and the deployment of informational campaigns targeted to specific categories of users who may be less prone to accept autonomous vehicles.
- Municipalities and urban planner. For example, the results from this project will guide about the type of road designs or specific signals to be provided that facilitate the acceptance of autonomous vehicles on the streets from the users' perspective. Results will provide a systematic understanding of the behavioural and societal effects of forthcoming transportation innovations, to allow municipalities to develop policies that can facilitate the sustainable, rapid, and least-disruptive growth of these technologies and services.
- Local communities. They can use the research developed in this project and the VR platform created and freely shared as training tool to help the population (in particular specific categories like older people) to live in and adapt to the forthcoming new technological urban environments.
- Private businesses. They can use the new development of VR environments to develop new commercial projects for example on the innovative interaction between transport technology and social aspects.
- Car manufacturers, who will be informed about how customers respond to new technologies allowing customization of their products according to user input.
The results obtained from this research will impact the following groups:
- Policy makers at national level. The results from this research will, for the first time, allow the quantification of the economic and societal benefits of FAVs, based on the rigorous estimation of the user's adoption of FAVs. This will reduce the risks associated with the current huge investments that governments (in the UK and worldwide) are currently making on AVs deployment. These results will affect policy decisions surrounding the cost of technical development, the creation of product trials, and the deployment of informational campaigns targeted to specific categories of users who may be less prone to accept autonomous vehicles.
- Municipalities and urban planner. For example, the results from this project will guide about the type of road designs or specific signals to be provided that facilitate the acceptance of autonomous vehicles on the streets from the users' perspective. Results will provide a systematic understanding of the behavioural and societal effects of forthcoming transportation innovations, to allow municipalities to develop policies that can facilitate the sustainable, rapid, and least-disruptive growth of these technologies and services.
- Local communities. They can use the research developed in this project and the VR platform created and freely shared as training tool to help the population (in particular specific categories like older people) to live in and adapt to the forthcoming new technological urban environments.
- Private businesses. They can use the new development of VR environments to develop new commercial projects for example on the innovative interaction between transport technology and social aspects.
- Car manufacturers, who will be informed about how customers respond to new technologies allowing customization of their products according to user input.
Publications
Kamal K
(2023)
Ordinal-ResLogit: Interpretable Deep Residual Neural Networks for Ordered Choices
in Journal of Choice Modelling
Yin H
(2023)
Living in a City Where Automated Taxis are Operating and Using Them: Does This Affect Consumers' Preferences?
in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
Yin H
(2024)
Conducting Stated Choice Experiments within an Immersive Virtual Reality Environment: an Application to the Discrete Choice of Automated versus Normal Taxi
in Transportation Research Procedia
Yin H
(2024)
Preferences for automated taxis. A comparison between immersive virtual reality and screen-based stated choice experiments
in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies
Farooq B
(2024)
Workshop synthesis: Virtual reality, visualization and interactivity in travel survey, where we are and possible future directions
in Transportation Research Procedia
| Description | The project had two main aims, one related to the use of virtual reality as tool to collect more realistic data about users behaviours and a second one the study of specific aspects related to automated vehicles that might affect consumers acceptance in using them and living in cities where automated vehicles are circulating. The research carried out in this project has revealed many interesting results. Since we are still analysing the data, not all the results are final. Below, are reported some of the key findings discovered so far. Regarding the virtual reality as a tool to collect data, the most striking impact of the immersive VR was observed in the evaluation of the "non-economic" attributes, and in particular in the preference for the customer reviews and the number of customers we have chosen the system. The literature reports that the VR allows respondents to focus more on the decision. Our results suggest that the realism of the immersive VR experience induces a shift in the focus of the participants more on the level-of-service attributes than on the social information or other vehicle characteristics provided. This effect is much more marked when the immersive VR was the first experiment performed, i.e. when participants have not been seen the experiment before. In addition, the immersive VR environment seems to be able to reveal much more heterogeneity in the preferences among respondents than screen-based experiment do. This is an important result that has of course practical consequences if these results are used to inform policies makers or manufacturers. In our experiment we put much emphasis in building a highly realistic environment. However, it is important to stress that while the level of details and the resolution of the images are relevant components in providing the sense of "being there", other aspects of the immersion, like the easiness of taking actions within the environment, the visual extension of the view, are even more important to allow participants to perceive themselves as being located with that space. This could be a direction for further work. Regarding the characteristics of the automated vehicles that affect consumers acceptance, cost, travel time and waiting time are confirmed to be key aspects customers valued also in the choice of these innovations. However, there is significant heterogeneity among countries, depending on the specific context, which poses some challenges in the transferability of these studies in different contexts. Our results also show clearly the importance of new elements such as in-vehicle features, customer reviews and to less extent the number of customers, whose impact is however different among countries, suggesting that AT companies or operators should customise the AT features to align with different needs and preferences in different countries. |
| Exploitation Route | This type of research is still in its infancy, there is a need to replicate the results to measure their stability in different contexts. There is a need to extend these results to study other effects, such as the experience of the automated vehicles, the learning effect. The results on the pedestrian crossing showed the learning effect is particularly relevant and after few repetitions respondents do not even notice anymore if the vehicle in the street has a driver or is automated. The outcomes from this research can be used to advance the research on the impact of social conformity on the choice of these innovations. There are many different directions the research can go. Our results show that the immersive virtual reality is particularly suitable for this king of studies. |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy Education Transport Other |
| Description | : visit from the Onatrio ministers, including Minister for Infrastructure and Minister for Higher Education, to the VR lab at TMU in Toronto |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Description | Invited Member on the Expert Advisory Group for Enhancing Ontario's Entry Level Heavy Duty Driver Training, Ministry of Transportation, Ontario |
| Geographic Reach | Local/Municipal/Regional |
| Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
| Impact | This activity had a policy impact related to enhancing Ontario's Entry Level Heavy Duty Driver Training. |
| Description | Member of the Expert Committee on "Climate Changes, Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility". Transport Ministry, Italian Government |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | it is difficult to assess this impact, but the work has impacted significantly on the current vision and way of implementing policies to decarbonise the transport system in Italy. The government has changed recently, I do not know if there will be a follow up on this work. |
| Description | visit from the representatives of the Canadian Federal Funding agencies to the VR lab at TMU in Toronto |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or improved professional practice |
| Description | visit from university representatives from Finland to the VR lab at TMU in Toronto |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Description | Canada First Research Excellence Fund |
| Amount | $90,000,000 (CAD) |
| Organisation | National Research Council of Canada |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Canada |
| Start | 05/2023 |
| End | 05/2030 |
| Description | Towards Social Intelligence in Smart Mobility Systems: Technologies, Methods, and Applications |
| Amount | $310,000 (CAD) |
| Funding ID | RGPIN-2020-04492 |
| Organisation | Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | Canada |
| Start | 03/2020 |
| End | 03/2025 |
| Title | Pedestrian crossing street virtual reality environment in presence of automated vehicles |
| Description | we built a virtual reality environment for a street in Newcastle (UK) and in Toronto (Canada) to simulate pedestrian crossing behaviour accounting for the impact of social conformity in the choice of crossing, as well as vehicle features of communication between vehicles and pedestrian. The characteristics of the environment can be modified by the researcher in a systematic way, allowing to control for their impact in the respondent's behaviour. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The research tool has been presented in several congresses and invited seminars and several publications in journals have been generated. At the moment the impact is visible through citations, and the several invitations to give seminars and participate in workshops that the Veronica team is receiving. It will need some time before the method can be used by other researchers. It will take longer to see a possible impact in practice because automated vehicles are still not operating, with few small exceptions like in China. |
| Title | Stated choice experiment embedded in the immersive Virtual Reality environment |
| Description | we built for Newcastle in the UK and for Toronto in Canada a virtual reality environment with a stated choice experiment embedded in it, where respondents can move in the urban environment where traffic will include fully automated vehicles (exclusively or with other vehicles) and choose to use them as a public transport system (in particular as taxi). |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The research tool has been presented in several congresses and invited seminars and several publications in journals have been generated. At the moment the impact is visible through citations, and the several invitations to give seminars and participate in workshops that the Veronica team is receiving. It will need some time before the method can be used by other researchers. It will take longer to see a possible impact in practice because automated vehicles are still not operating, with few small exceptions like in China. |
| Title | Demand model estimation |
| Description | We have analysed the data collected, estimated mathematical models and evaluated the results to understand if there was something that needed to be changed in the survey built. According to the research plan, the data collection online and with the VR should have occurred at the same time (or at one week distance one from each other). However, due to COVID, it has not been possible to run the VR experiment, and this has delayed also the collection of the online data. in order to reduce this delay, we have modified the original plan, such as we will run first the survey for the part of the sample that will answer only the online sample. In this was we will be able at least to progress with the analysis of the adoption of AV using the traditional survey methodology. As soon as COVID will allow, we will complete the survey with the sample that will reply both the online and the VR experiment. The online survey is ready to be launched. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | The two international workshops were I was invited were held one in person (the Transportation Research Board Conference in January 2020 in Washington) and one online (the Large Scale Autonomy: Connectivity and Mobility Networks workshop in November at UCLA). As planned I participated in both workshops and presented the initial results of this research. The International Survey Method Conference where I have a paper accepted for presentation has been postponed to March 20-25th 2022. The paper is by Hao Yin & Elisabetta Cherchi and the title is "Conducting Stated Choice Experiments within a Virtual Reality environment: an application to the choice of automated taxi." |
| Title | Lab tests started also in Toronto |
| Description | Canada has been in strict lockdown until recently. Now that has reopened, pilot tests just started this week giving experience to people who are not involved in the project about the VR and the research we are conducting. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | There are not yet results. |
| Title | Online data collection on taxi choice and model estimation in Newcastle and Toronto |
| Description | Data were collected about respondents choice between normal and automated taxis online. The data collection has been successfully completed both in Newcastle (UK) and in Toronto (Canada). Analysis of the stated choice experiments using discrete choice models are completed for both Newcastle and Toronto dataset. Several papers have been presented at conferences and workshops, as well as published in journals. The team is still working on more papers, in particular with the Toronto dataset that was completed slightly later than the one in the UK |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This work has generated lots of interest in the scientific community. Other than several papers presented at international conferences, reaching a broad and diverse community, members of the team have been invited to present this work at seminars in several universities worldwide, at workshops, including two keynote speeches by the principal investigator. |
| Title | Online stated choice data collection and model estimation |
| Description | The stated choice experiment is finalised and vastly tested online. Data collected online have been analysed using discrete choice models. Psychological statements including social conformity effects have been finalised and vastly tested online. Data collected online have been analysed using structural equation models |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | We are preparing a paper to be submitted to the International Association of Travel Behaviour Research Conference, that will be held In Santiago de Cile in December 2022 |
| Title | VR data about pedestrian crossing behaviour |
| Description | VR data have been collected in both Newcastle and Toronto about crossing behaviour in presence of automated vehicles under different conditions of traffic composition, flow density, flow speed, weather etc. The information have been matched with socio-economic characteristics of the participants, still keeping full anonymity about the participants identity, as per ethical approval. The data have been used to estimate pedestrian crossing models. Some papers has been already published, but the team is still working on this. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | This work has generated lots of interest in the scientific community. Papers have been presented at international conferences, reaching a broad and diverse community, and the co-I and his team has also been invited to give seminars and present at workshops organised worldwide by top-tiers universities. |
| Title | VR data collection about taxi choice |
| Description | Data were collected about respondents choice between normal and automated taxis within the VR environment built as part of this project. The data collection has been successfully completed both in Newcastle (UK) and in Toronto (Canada). Analysis of the stated choice experiments using discrete choice models are completed for both Newcastle and Toronto dataset. Several papers have been presented at conferences and workshops, as well as published in journals. The team is still working on more papers, in particular with the Toronto dataset that was completed slightly later than the one in the UK |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This work has generated lots of interest in the scientific community. Other than several papers presented at international conferences, reaching a broad and diverse community, members of the team based in Newcastle has been invited to present this work at 12 between seminars and workshops organised worldwide by top-tiers universities, including two keynote speeches by the principal investigator. |
| Title | VR pilot data |
| Description | The project started less than one year ago, at the moment we have collected pilot data to test the use of VR to collect data on the acceptance of automated vehicle. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | I have been invited to present the research I am doing at two international workshops. One was at the Transportation Research Board Conference in January 2020 in Washington, Another one is the Large Scale Autonomy: Connectivity and Mobility Networks workshop that will take place in November at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IPAM) on the UCLA campus. I have also a paper accepted to the International Survey Method Conference that will be held in June in Portugal. The paper is by Hao Yin & Elisabetta Cherchi and the title is "Conducting Stated Choice Experiments within a Virtual Reality environment: an application to the choice of automated taxi." |
| Description | PhD at Beijing Jiaotong University, China |
| Organisation | Beijing Jiaotong University |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | Collaboration in a PhD research on acceptance of autonomous vehicles. My contribution stands on the scientific guidance due to my experience on the topic developed in the Veronica project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partners in Beijing did all the work, from the definition of the survey, data collection (including the cost of collecting the data), data analysis. |
| Impact | Xue, F., Yao, E., Cherchi, E. and de Almeida Correia, G.H. (2024) Modeling the joint choice behavior of commuters' travel mode and parking options for private autonomous vehicles. Transportation Research Part C, 159, 104471. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | collaboration with Ryerson University |
| Organisation | Ryerson University |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | My team and myself contributed to the methodological and empirical work related to the acceptance of using automated vehicles. We also contributed to the implementation of this methodology online and in the VR environment. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The partner and his team at Ryerson contributed to the methodological and empirical work related to the acceptance by the pedestrians of interacting with automated vehicles. They also contributed to the implementation of this methodology in the VR environment. |
| Impact | the output described in the software section is the result of this collaboration |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Title | VR software for choice of automated taxi |
| Description | we built a VR software where respondents can interact with automated vehicles circulating in a "real" street and select a taxi that can be a normal one with driver or an automated taxi. The street is "real" in the sense that we reproduce in the VR environment a street that exists and where there is currently a taxi rank for normal taxi The software has been tested with a pilot of colleagues and students until March 2020, before the start of the lockdown. Since then we kept working on it, but we could only test it among ourselves, the researchers (as covid did not allow to have any external participants to test the VR). We have managed to advance. The software is now ready 90%, but need to have a final test with "real" participants. Unfortunately, the VR uses headsets, and due to covid, it is not yet possible to do any real tests. The software has been updated in 2022, re-tested and used to run lab experiments in both Newcastle and Toronto. the lab experiment is concluded in Newcastle, in progress in Toronto. The experiment has been complete also in Toronto and data already analysed and we are working on producing the relevant publications. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | 2020: at the moment there is no notable impacts, except the invitation to workshops to present this software to the international community 2022: after extensive use of the software for data collection, the software is powerful and many participants made the comment that they wish to have it. In the research environment, this is one of the most advanced software used to study behaviour in transport area. |
| Title | VR software to study interaction between Automated Taxis and pedestrian crossing |
| Description | we built a VR software where respondents can interact with automated vehicles circulating in a "real" street and cross a real street in both Newcastle and Toronto where vehicles are running at different speed, in different composition (number of vehicles, types of vehicles, automated and normal) and under different weather conditions (sunny, rainy, snowing) and different time of the day, (morning or night). The software has been tested with a pilot of colleagues and students until March 2020, then with other participants, both in the UK and in Canada. The software is now completed and used to collect data. The experiment has been complete, all data collected, in both the UK and Canada and data already analysed and we are working on producing the relevant publications. |
| Type Of Technology | Software |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Impact | The software has been tested with a pilot of colleagues and students until March 2020, before the start of the lockdown. Since then we kept working on it, but we could only test it among ourselves, the researchers (as covid did not allow to have any external participants to test the VR). We have managed to advance. The software has been updated in 2022, re-tested and used to run lab experiments in both Newcastle and Toronto. the lab experiment was concluded in Newcastle in 2022, in Toronto in 202. The experiment has been complete also in Toronto and data already analysed and we are working on producing the relevant publications. |
| Description | CCAV/ BritainThinks Specialist Group March Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | specialist group with the role to support the research commissioned by DfT to BritainThinks, in partnership with Aurrigo and University College London (UCL) to deliver a programme of research to understand public attitudes to automated vehicles and their role in the UK's transport system. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |