Mitigation strategies for critical safety risks of SAVs in an eco-innovation context: Insights from thematic analysis

Shared level 4 automated vehicles (SAVs) are proposed as a solution to reduce road accidents caused by human error and to enhance overall traffic safety. However, safety continues to be a primary concern for SAVs. Addressing safety concerns requires not only technological solutions but also insights into socially informed perspectives and interventions to mitigate critical safety risks of SAV integrated into the public transport system. This paper investigates the socio-technical concerns of SAV by identifying the critical safety issues, their mitigation strategies and deriving theoretical insights and actionable implications for practice. Drawing on interviews with 47 CCAM experts and stakeholders from 11 European countries, we conduct thematic analysis to uncover recurring patterns and relationships across the dataset. Our analysis shows five interrelated themes on critical safety issues and eight themes on mitigation strategies shape SAV safety outcomes. These themes provide insight into complex socio-technical dynamics that influence the promise of safe integration of SAV into public transport systems. By synthesising these empirical patterns, we translate the patterns into practical implications that can support informed decision-making and enhance social conditions for the sustainable integration of SAV into the public transport system. Applying eco-innovation theory to structure our findings, we complement the existing stream of literature on mitigation strategies of critical safety risks of level 4 SAV beyond technocentric mitigation strategies to regulatory push/pull and demand-pull mechanisms. Thus, this paper enriches existing research by providing comprehensive and socially grounded understanding of mitigation strategies of critical safety risks of SAVs.