Perception and Intention for Autonomous Vehicle Acceptance in Developing Countries

The paper focuses on understanding how people in Ghana perceive autonomous vehicles and whether they intent to use them. Ghana is used as a case study to represent developing countries Many developing countries, including Ghana, lack the advanced infrastructure, technology, and regulatory frameworks that developed countries have for supporting AV adoption. The study's findings in Ghana may provide insights that are relevant to other developing countries facing similar challenges. The study used survey responses from 1,248 people to test a theoretical framework called the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which explains how people adopt new technologies. The standard TAM was expanded by adding more factors like: Perceived reliability–how dependable people think AVs are, Perceived risk–concerns about potential failures of AVs. Technological competence–confidence in AV technology's capabilities and Operational environment–the context in which AVs would operate, such as traffic patterns and road conditions. In our findings, all the identified latent constructs—perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived reliability, perceived risk, and technological competence—influenced whether people intend to use AVs. The study confirmed that user perceptions about usefulness, ease of use, reliability, risk, and competence play important roles in shaping attitudes toward AVs. Among these, perceived reliability emerged as the most influential factor. People's trust in how reliable AVs are was the strongest factor influencing willingness to adopt them. Reliable AVs directly increased the intention to use them. Also, reliable AVs made users see them as more useful and less risky, further increasing the intention to use them. Furthermore, perceived reliability was found to indirectly boost intention to use AVs when accompanied by greater trust in the technological competence and capabilities of AVs. If people believed that AV technology was advanced and capable, their trust in AV reliability increased. These results suggest that raising awareness and educating the public about AV technology could address concerns about safety and reliability, leading to higher acceptance rates. Additionally, in developing countries, road systems often lack organization, with mixed-use lanes shared by regular objects like pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles and even irregular objects like animals. To make AV adoption feasible, as the governments of developing counties design dedicated AV-friendly lanes and enforce traffic laws to regulate usage, they also need to promote awareness programs to assure people of safety and reliability.