The Effect of Consumer Resistance and Trust on the Intention to Accept Fully Autonomous Vehicles

Fully autonomous vehicles are a new technology that is expected to be widely accepted by consumers because of their various advantages. This study examined consumers’ intention to accept fully autonomous vehicles based on trust and resistance. To this end, consumer data were analyzed by integrating the innovation resistance model and the technology trust model. The subjects of the survey were 400 drivers between the ages of twenty and sixty-nine. As a result of the study, variables related to the “technical characteristics” of fully autonomous vehicles affected the resistance. On the other hand, “experiential characteristics” were confirmed to affect trust. Second, consumers with a high innovation propensity are more likely to accept fully autonomous vehicles when they are commercialized in the future. Third, it was found that resistance had a negative effect and trust had a positive effect on consumers’ intention to accept fully autonomous vehicles. Therefore, for consumers to accept these, technology should be developed in the direction of removing factors affecting resistance and providing factors increasing trust. As such, consumers have anxiety and concerns as well as expectations, even though they have not yet experienced a fully autonomous vehicle. In particular, since fully autonomous vehicles completely change the existing driving paradigm, more careful consideration is required in the diffusion of this technology.