Willingness to use driverless cars: Young consumers’ perspective

Despite the benefits of driverless cars, much is still to be learned about consumers’ willingness to use driverless cars particularly when such cars are still primarily in the development phase and not widely available for consumers to experience. This study examines the extent to which the benefits of driverless cars are discernible to motivate adoption. Survey results of 191 young consumers suggest that a long-term orientation is required to discern the economic, safety and time benefits of driverless cars. A long-term orientation is particularly crucial to prevent consumers from being bogged down by the various immediate technical and safety concerns associated with driverless cars and focus on the long-term economic, safety and time benefits instead. While most new technologies give rise to anxiety, anxiety is found to strengthen the motivating effects of the economic benefits of driverless cars on willingness to use. Such findings provide implications for educating consumers about ongoing developments in resolving the various immediate concerns about driverless cars.