TRAVEL MODE CHOICE AND USERS' ACCEPTANCE ON AUTONOMOUS TAXI FROM A STATED PREFERENCE SURVEY

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of autonomous taxi (AT) acceptability on the utility function of a modal choice model. To this end, an online stated preference (SP) survey was conducted in March 2022, targeting 1,000 residents of the 23 wards of Tokyo. The assessment of automated driving acceptability employed the methodology established by Hulse et al. (2018). The findings of this study reveal that acceptability of ATs is notably higher among individuals within working-age and high-income brackets, aligning with the conclusions of prior research. Moreover, the estimation results from the SP model, which incorporates acceptability as a variable, indicate that acceptability significantly influences AT choice. While the estimation of acceptability using the ordered logit model showed limited precision, incorporating the expected acceptability values derived from the Ordered Logit model into the SP model yielded significant parameters. This highlights the importance of combining the SP and Ordered Logit models for a comprehensive understanding of AT acceptability’s effect on modal choice.