Understanding acceptance of autonomous vehicles in Japan, UK, and Germany

Figures & data

Table 1. Cultural dimensions in Japan, the UK and Germany. Range 0–100, source https://www.hofstede-insights.com/country-comparison/germany,japan,the-uk/.

Dimensions	Japan	UK	Germany	Comparison
Power Distance	54	35	35	JP>UK = DE
Individualism/Collectivism	46	89	67	UK>DE>JP
Masculinity/Femininity	95	66	66	JP>UK = DE
Uncertainty Avoidance	92	35	65	JP>DE>UK
Long/Short Term Orientation	88	51	83	JP = DE>UK
Indulgence/Restraint	42	61	40	UK>JP = DE

Table 2. Online questionnaire survey content and scales.

Contents	Scales and options
Frequency of car driving and passenger trips	We will ask you about your trips as a car driver and passenger this week. (Please fill in half-width numerals.) * Please write 1 for one way trip. ※ Please answer ‘0.5 hours’ if the time is 1 to 59 minutes. [Total number of driving trips] How many trips did you make as a driver this week? [No of__ trips] [Total driving minutes] How many minutes did you drive for in total? _[In minutes] [Number of shared trips] How many trips did you drive with a passenger? __ [No of trips] [Shared trip minutes] How many shared minutes did you drive? _[In minutes] [Total number of trips as a car passenger] How many trips did you make as a car passenger? (Taxi excluded) _ [No of trips] [Total car passenger minutes] How many minutes did you ride a car (taxi excluded) _ [In minutes]
Car risk perception	[Risk perception from driver/passenger/pedestrian’s point of views] Please imagine as you are a car driver/passenger/pedestrian. (From each point of view of driver, passenger and pedestrian); 5 point scale [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Fear] Do you think cars are frightening? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Ignorance] Do you think you are well informed about cars? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree]
Partial AV Individual perception	The term “partially automated driving” refers to partially automated cars. (Table 1 is presented.); 5 point scale (1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree) ■ We will ask your perception about automated driving. Please answer on the basis of partially automated driving (driver partially involved in driving). [Individual acceptance] Do you agree or disagree with “a partially automated driving society” future? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Risk perception from passenger/pedestrian’s point of views] Please imagine as you are a driver/passenger/pedestrian. (From each point of view of driver, passenger and pedestrian) [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Fear] Do you think a partially automated driving future is frightening? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Ignorance] Do you think you are well informed about partially automated driving? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree]
Fully AV Individual perception	The term “fully automated driving” refers to fully driverless cars. (Table 1 is presented.); 5 point scale (1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree) ■ We will ask your perception about automated driving. Please answer on the basis of a fully automated driving future. [Individual acceptance] Do you agree or disagree with “a fully automated driving society” future? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Risk perception from passenger/pedestrian’s point of views] Please imagine as you are a passenger/pedestrian. (From each point of view of passenger and pedestrian) [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Fear] Do you think a fully automated driving future is frightening? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree] [Ignorance] Do you think you are well informed about fully automated driving? [1: strongly disagree, 5: strongly agree]

Table 3. Result of Kruskal–Wallis H test; ‘Individual acceptance of AVs in society’ for partial AVs. ***: significant at 99% level.

Partial AV comparisons	Frequencies	Country			H test
		Japan	UK	Germany	H	p
Individual acceptance	Strongly disagree	47	213	261	127.176	<0.001***
	Disagree	103	148	159
	Neither	448	305	290
	Agree	261	203	188
	Strongly agree	141	131	102

Table 4. Result of Kruskal–Wallis H test; ‘Individual acceptance of AVs in society’ for fully AVs. ***: significant at 99% level.

Fully AV comparisons	Frequencies				H test
		Japan	UK	Germany	H	p
Individual acceptance	Strongly disagree	134	296	356	67.802	0.001***
	Disagree	150	128	145
	Neither	414	269	241
	Agree	185	176	133
	Strongly agree	117	131	125

Table 5. Overview of PCA for Japan, the UK and Germany.

Japan				UK				Germany
Components	Variables	Loading	Cronbach’s alpha	Components	Variables	Loading	Cronbach’s alpha	Components	Variables	Loading	Cronbach’s alpha
Component 1 ‘AV Expectations’	Expectation_fully_AV_convenience	0.879	α = 0.933	Component 1 ‘AV Expectations’	Expectation_partial_AV_happiness	0.913	α = 0.971	Component 1 ‘AV Expectations’	Expectation_fully_AV_happiness	0.91	α = 0.958
	Expectation_fully_AV_happiness	0.873			Expectation_fully_AV_happiness	0.913			Expectation_partial_AV_happiness	0.906
	Expectation_partial_AV_convenience	0.848			Expectation_fully_AV_social_issues	0.913			Expectation_fully_AV_social_issues	0.884
	Expectation_fully_AV_social_issues	0.843			Expectation_partial_AV_social_issues	0.906			Expectation_partial_AV_social_issues	0.883
	Expectation_partial_AV_happiness	0.843			Expectation_partial_AV_convenience	0.904			Expectation_partial_AV_convenience	0.874
	Expectation_partial_AV_social_issues	0.823			Expectation_fully_AV_convenience	0.9			Expectation_fully_AV_convenience	0.864
Component 2 ‘AV Ignorance’	Risk_partial_AV_Pedestrian_Unknown	0.923	α = 0.882	Component 2 ‘AV Ignorance’	Risk_partial_AV_Pedestrian_Unknown	0.912	α = 0.922	Component 2 ‘AV Ignorance’	Risk_partial_AV_Pedestrian_Unknown	0.94	α = 0.947
	Risk_fully_AV_Pedestrian_Unknown	0.9			Risk_fully_AV_Pedestrian_Unknown	0.901			Risk_fully_AV_Pedestrian_Unknown	0.936
	Risk_fully_AV_Driver_Unknown	0.868			Risk_partial_AV_Driver_Unknown	0.844			Risk_partial_AV_Driver_Unknown	0.9
Component 3 ‘Driver Exposure’	Shared_trips_as_driver	0.845	α = 0.675	Component 3 ‘Driver Exposure’	Driver_trips	0.872		Component 3 ‘Driving Exposure’	Shared_trips_as_driver	0.839	α = 0.739
	Shared_minutes_as_driver	0.805			Driver_minutes	0.787	α = 0.725		Driving_trips	0.809
	Driver_trips	0.75			Shared_trips_as_driver	0.631			Shared_minutes_as_driver	0.749
	Driver_minutes	0.628			Shared_minutes_as_driver	0.503			Driving_hours	0.704
Component 4 ‘AV Fear’	Risk_partial_AV_Pedestrian_Fear	0.881	α = 0.806	Component 4 ‘AV Fear’	Risk_partial_AV_Pedestrian_Fear	0.934	α = 0.887	Component 4 ‘AV Fear’	Risk_partial_AV_Pedestrian_Fear	0.919	α = 0.908
	Risk_partial_AV_Driver_Fear	0.79			Risk_fully_AV_Pedestrian_Fear	0.924			Risk_fully_AV_Pedestrian_Fear	0.898
	Risk_fully_AV_Pedestrian_Fear	0.789			Risk_partial_AV_Driver_Fear	0.804			Risk_partial_AV_Driver_Fear	0.847
Component 5 ‘Passenger Exposure’	Passenger_trips	0.908	α = 0.813	Component 5 ‘Passenger Exposure’	Passenger_minutes	0.914	α = 0.750	Component 5 ‘Passenger Exposure’	Passenger_hours	0.887	α = 0.741
	Passenger_minutes	0.9			Passenger_trips	0.791			Passenger_trips	0.83
					Shared_minutes_as_driver	0.626

Table 6. Ordered logit model pseudo R-square values for partial AV and fully AV acceptance in Japan, the UK and Germany.

Level of AV	Pseudo R-square test applied	Japan	UK	Germany
Partial AV	Cox and Snell	0.530	0.691	0.627
	Nagelkerke	0.566	0.722	0.656
	McFadden	0.274	0.373	0.317
Fully AV	Cox and Snell	0.611	0.794	0.619
	Nagelkerke	0.643	0.737	0.649
	McFadden	0.315	0.392	0.315

Table 7. Ordered logit model summaries for partial AV and fully AV acceptance in Japan, the UK and Germany. Note: *** is significant at 99%, ** at 95% and * at 90% level.

AV Level		Japan					UK					Germany
	Variables		Estimate	Std. Error	Wald	p-value		Estimate	Std. Error	Wald	p-value		Estimate	Std. Error	Wald	p-value
Partial AV	Thresholds	1|2	−4.86	0.232	440.688	<0.001***	1|2	−2.941	0.153	368.348	<0.001***	1|2	−2.226	0.121	336.53	<0.001***
		2|3	−2.804	0.144	380.374	<0.001***	2|3	−1.283	0.122	109.917	<0.001***	2|3	−0.687	0.099	48.059	<0.001***
		3|4	0.573	0.087	43.855	<0.001***	3|4	1.41	0.118	141.615	<0.001***	3|4	1.735	0.112	241.262	<0.001***
		4|5	2.842	0.137	433.231	<0.001***	4|5	4.03	0.189	457.036	<0.001***	4|5	4.023	0.179	505.305	<0.001***
	Variables	Component 1	2.064	0.097	450.236	<0.001***	Component 1	2.801	0.123	521.413	<0.001***	Component 1	2.305	0.101	518.681	<0.001***
							Component 2	0.774	0.077	101.572	<0.001***	Component 2	0.357	0.069	26.772	<0.001***
		Component 3	0.132	0.073	3.234	0.072*	Component 3	−0.542	0.076	51.616	<0.001***	Component 3	0.154	0.065	5.546	0.019**
		Component 4	−0.508	0.071	51.688	<0.001***	Component 4	0.243	0.075	10.559	0.001***	Component 4	−0.897	0.072	153.275	<0.001***
							Component 5	0.202	0.072	7.791	0.005***
Fully AV	Thresholds	1|2	−3.149	0.178	314.136	<0.001***	1|2	−2.183	0.139	244.886	<0.001***	1|2	−1.324	0.105	158.556	<0.001***
		2|3	−1.224	0.123	99.224	<0.001***	2|3	−0.746	0.117	40.917	<0.001***	2|3	−0.008	0.094	0.007	0.933
		3|4	1.681	0.129	169.601	<0.001***	3|4	1.797	0.127	200.571	<0.001***	3|4	1.957	0.116	286.049	<0.001***
		4|5	3.702	0.182	411.591	<0.001***	4|5	4.228	0.195	468.505	<0.001***	4|5	3.659	0.164	495.178	<0.001***
	Variables	Component 1	2.407	0.107	503.511	<0.001***	Component 1	2.95	0.129	526.356	<0.001***	Component 1	2.269	0.102	499.011	<0.001***
		Component 2	0.227	0.072	10.084	<0.001***	Component 2	0.669	0.079	72.571	<0.001***	Component 2	0.361	0.072	24.941	<0.001***
							Component 3	−0.755	0.082	85.073	<0.001***	Component 3	0.156	0.066	5.638	0.018**
		Component 4	−0.653	0.073	79.116	<0.001***	Component 4	0.27	0.079	11.834	<0.001***	Component 4	−0.953	0.076	155.326	<0.001***
							Component 5	0.243	0.074	10.7	<0.001***
		Gender_male (Ref. category female)	0.509	0.141	13.051	<0.001***

Table 8. Overview of Lowest AV level country comparisons.

			Japan		UK		Germany		Japan-UK			Japan-Germany			UK-Germany			All countries
Level	Component	Label	beta coef	std. error	beta coef	std. error	beta coef	std. error	Z-test value	Result	Comparisons	Z-test value	Result	Comparisons	Z-test value	Result	Comparisons	Rankings
Partial AV acceptance	Component 1	AV Expectations	2.064	0.097	2.801	0.123	2.305	0.101	4.705	significant	Japan<UK	1.721	non-significant	Japan = Germany	3.116	significant	UK>Germany	UK>Japan = Germany
	Component 2	Ignorance-Unknown	-	-	0.774	0.077	0.357	0.069	-	N/A	N/A	-	N/A	N/A	4.033	significant	UK>Germany	UK>Germany
	Component 3	Fear of Autonomous Vehicles	0.132	0.073	−0.542	0.076	0.154	0.065	6.396	significant	Japan>UK	10.036	significant	Japan>Germany	0.897	non-significant	UK = Germany	Japan>UK = Germany
	Component 4	Driving Exposure	−0.508	0.071	0.243	0.075	−0.897	0.072	7.272	significant	Japan<UK	6.877	significant	Japan<Germany	3.391	significant	UK>Germany	UK>Japan>Germany
	Component 5	Passenger Exposure	-	-	0.202	0.072	-	-	-	N/A	N/A	-	N/A	N/A	-	N/A	N/A	N/A
Fully AV acceptance	Component 1	AV Expectations	2.407	0.107	2.95	0.129	2.269	0.102	3.24	significant	Japan<UK	0.934	non-significant	Japan = Germany	4.141	significant	UK>Germany	UK>Japan = Germany
	Component 2	Ignorance-Unknown	0.227	0.072	0.669	0.079	0.361	0.072	4.135	significant	Japan<UK	1.316	non-significant	Japan = Germany	2.882	significant	UK>Germany	UK>Japan = Germany
	Component 3	Fear of Autonomous Vehicles	-	-	−0.755	0.082	0.156	0.066	-	Ν/Α	Ν/Α	-	N/A	N/A	1.107	non-significant	UK = Germany	UK = Germany
	Component 4	Driving Exposure	−0.653	0.073	0.27	0.079	−0.953	0.076	8.581	significant	Japan<UK	8.221	significant	Japan<Germany	1.771	non-significant	UK = Germany	UK = Germany>Japan
	Component 5	Passenger Exposure	-	-	0.243	0.074	-	-	-	N/A	N/A	-	N/A	N/A	-	N/A	N/A	N/A