# Exploring the Evolution of Autonomous Vehicle Acceptance through Hands-On Demonstrations
## 4 Results and Discussion
### Future Users Survey Results  
In this section, the analysis of results focuses on the 22-question survey conducted among a total of 629 people considered as potential and future users of autonomous driving as they are professionally linked to the automotive sector. Among the survey's main demographics, 68% of respondents are men, while 32% are women, all between the ages of 20 and 65 and with an average age of 49 years. In terms of driving experience, the survey shows that 94.3% of participants have their own vehicle and at least 34% admit to having had an accident in the last 10 years. If we focus the analysis on the knowledge regarding the automotive world and the advancements being made in the sector, we observe aspects such as that 83% of those surveyed are familiar with ADAS systems, but only 37% are certain that their vehicle is equipped with ADAS and, of these, up to 14%, of which the majority are men, consider themselves dissatisfied with the performance of these systems. This last percentage is noteworthy because it means that there is a certain number of respondents who, having some experience in the sector, consider that the ADAS technology already installed in commercial vehicles should be improved. This illustrates the importance of these studies in identifying these complaints and encouraging the industry to continue research and development in this field. Continuing with the analysis of future users' survey answers, in relation to knowledge about autonomous driving, the first element to highlight is a striking gender gap between the number of men and women who claim to know about the technology and the level of knowledge they have about it. If we look at Figure 5, we can see how in the case of women, 87% recognize that their knowledge about this technology is basic (55%) or null (32%), which contrasts with the percentage of men, which stands at 54%, composed of those who state that their level of knowledge is basic (42%) or null (12%). Considering the average age of the respondents, it can be assumed that this gap appears because in previous generations the professional profiles were clearly biased, with technical studies being a male-dominated sector, while business-related studies presented greater gender parity. Hence, women respondents linked to the automotive sector, due to social and cultural circumstances, may be in departments further away from technological aspects such as autonomous driving. Fortunately, nowadays there is increasing parity in all higher education studies, and it is more than likely that as generations pass these differences will even out. Figure 4: Current users’ feelings towards autonomous driving. This correlation in gender is also noticeable when respondents are asked whether they would like all vehicles to be driverless in the future, as shown in Figure 6, although in this case the difference is much smaller (56% vs. 46%). This gender-related difference is likely correlated with the responses shown in Figure 5, where most women claim to have limited knowledge in autonomous driving, unlike men; therefore, the fear of an unknown technology may be what pushes down this acceptance among female respondents. Furthermore, analyzing Figure 6, it can be seen how, among the respondents, there is not a high acceptance of the idea that all vehicles should circulate without a driver. Evidently, this survey was conducted among people who have not been able to interact with a fully autonomous vehicle, and there is a significant percentage of people who are not knowledgeable enough about the technology to accept the idea that the driver's role will disappear in cars. This fact demonstrates that there is still much work to be done to popularize this technology among the public in order to achieve a higher percentage of people who are not afraid or prejudiced about the predominance of this technology in the future of mobility.