# The Future of Autonomous Vehicles in the Opinion of Automotive Market Users
## 3 Results and Discussion
### Autonomy Levels in the Automotive Market
Respondents positively evaluated the concept of AVs up to level 3, while levels 4 and 5 were rated quite poorly. These are already quite innovative solutions, and in the opinion of the respondents, not very realistic for the automotive market in the near future. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**Autonomy Level** & **Woman** & **Man** & **Total** \\ \hline Level 1 & 69 & 114 & 183 \\ Level 2 & 64 & 104 & 168 \\ Level 3 & 61 & 101 & 162 \\ Level 4 & 18 & 30 & 48 \\ Level 5 & 7 & 11 & 18 \\ Generally & 219 & 360 & 579 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} Summary: Calculating the cardinality; the number of marked cells \(>\) 10 Chi’2 Pearson: 17.4178, df = 4, \(p\) = 0.001603.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: The importance of different types of AVs by respondents based on gender. Figure 2: Perception of the levels of autonomy for the AV market among respondents by gender. The conducted research also showed that the respondents know the concept of AVs on average--only 30.4% of them have heard and know the concept; while more than half (58.2%) declared that they had heard something about it, and 11.4% of the respondents did not know what the idea was about. On the other hand, due to the popularity of the progressive introduction of autonomous vehicle solutions on the market, drivers with five years seniority believe that AVs will become popular in more than 20 years. Drivers with 5-15 years of experience, as in the case of drivers who have a longer experience, i.e., 15-30 years as a driver, decided that it would take place in the period of 10-20 years. On the other hand, drivers with the longest experience, i.e., over 30 years, similarly to the youngest ones, said that, in their opinion, the development of AVs would take place in over 20 years (Figure 3). Among the different groups of respondents by age, the concept of the development of the AV market with regard to the level of autonomy was highly diversified (Figure 4a,b). In the 19-25 age group, women were rather unequivocally focused on development over 10-20 years for level 2 of autonomy, while in the same age group, men were not so clearly determined; the majority of indications concerned level 3 (development in the perspective of 10-20 years), the remaining answers were similarly divided into level 1 (development in the perspective of more than 20 years) and level 2 (period of 10-20 years). It should be added that according to women in this age group, the introduction of AVs at level 4 is unlikely, and at level 5, even impossible. In turn, men in this group had a more positive attitude to higher levels of autonomy than women, especially in levels 3 and 4. Figure 3: The popularity of AVs in Poland in the opinion of the respondents due to the driver’s experience. The 26-40 age group (Figure 5a,b) indicated the following trends in the perception of levels of autonomy: for women--the most likely spread of AVs was at level 3 (development over the 10-20 years period), while--similarly to the perspective in the previously analyzed age group--the higher levels of autonomy (i.e., levels 4 and 5) were not taken into account at all. It should be added that a large group of women in this age group believe that the introduction of AVs, starting from level 1, will only be possible in 20 years' time at the earliest. On the other hand, men also mainly see sense in level 3 of autonomy in the period of 10-20 years; however, they are more optimistic than women in this age range in regard to higher levels of vehicle autonomy--indicating a period of 10 to 20 years for perceived development (even for level 5). The opinions of the respondents in the 41-60 age group were also varied (see Figure 6a,b). Women mainly indicated the 5-10-year development perspective for level 3, while men were less determined, and equally indicated level 1 (over 20 years) and level 3 (development over 10-20 years). Figure 4: Perception of the levels of autonomy for the AV market among respondents by gender in the 19–25 age group: (**a**) female; (**b**) male.