An Empirical Study On The Purchasing Behavior Of Autonomous Vehicles Based On The Mixed Logit Model

Autonomous vehicles(AVs)or self-driving cars are regarded as the inevitable development trend of the automobile industry and intelligent transportation system(ITS).Countries all over the world attach great importance to the development of AV technologies,which has already become the strategic commanding point that the countries fighting for.The deployment and promotion of AVs not only depend on the maturity of AV technologies,but also on the public acceptance and the policy support.To capture the factors affecting willingness to purchasing AVs,this study investigated user acceptance,intention to use and willingness to buy AVs based on stated preference(SP)survey.According to the SP data,we developed a Multinomial Logit model and a Mixed Logit model for the purchasing behavior.The model calibration results show that the Mixed Logit model have higher goodness-of-fit than the Multinomial Logit model.The model estimation results show that AV lanes and government subsidy could encourage respondents' purchasing decision.As expected,the price has side effect on the intention to purchase AVs.We also find that social interactions play a critical role in increasing or decreasing the willingness to buy AVs of respondents.Furthermore,it is found that the majority of respondents who have experienced an traffic accident in the past years have greater intention to buy AVs,but those who like driving show lower interests in purchasing AVs.Results of the analysis indicate that people with higher education level are cautious about purchasing AVs.This study also conclude that respondents with private cars are reluctant to purchase AVs compared to those who don't own private cars.Last but not least,the Mixed Logit model confirms the existence of unobserved heterogeneous across respondents in their response to penetration rate and government subsidy.According to the analysis results,this study provides some insights into preparing for the launching and deployment of AVs to government,vehicles developers and other stakeholders.