# Public Perception of the Introduction of Autonomous Vehicles
## 4 Discussion
### Quantitative Data Analysis
It is interesting to mention here that the same conclusion and suggestion were made by an acceptance divergence study conducted in the European Union (EU) [38]. Perspectives on autonomous cars were investigated among the media, citizens, and policy. We have shown that participants with prior knowledge on new technologies are more willing to accept them. This situation is the same as that in the EU. Apart from scientific sources, the role of the media is extremely important in this information dissemination process. Better worldwide understanding of new technologies is needed to raise awareness of their benefits, explain the risks, and speed up the acceptance process. We have already highlighted the importance of regulatory framework development. An interesting policymaking approach was proposed in an EU case study. Citizens could be engaged in and be a part of the policy development process. In so doing, they will be able to better understand the implications of the new AV technologies and the consequences in their daily life and mobility. This could be an approach in developing a new regulatory framework which would truly benefit community; however, this is not widely applicable. Communities around the world have different views on ethical, moral, and legal issues [39]. The third most influential factor is the public stakeholders group (0.8373), where people who belong to the public group tended to score higher on the dependent variable with the odds ratio 2.31. The results showed that people who belong to the industry stakeholders group are more likely to have positive expectations of the transition (29.35%). This is lower than people who belong to the government stakeholders group, holding constant all other variables. Note that the difference was not large enough to be statistically significant. Participants were also asked to self-identify their position in their organisation and this variable displayed a positive slope (0.1524). For a one unit (level) increase in management role, the odds of moving from a prediction of low benefits to average or high benefits were found to be 1.1646 times higher, with the other variables in the model held constant. On the calculation of the \(p\)-value, it was not large enough to provide evidence (\(p>0.05\)) that the level of management role had an impact on people's opinions about the expected benefits that may accompany the transition toward increased use of AVs. The age and education variables are not statistically significant, but they are still worth noting. Based on the parameter estimates shown in Table 6, those aged above 35 and those who had reached a higher level of education were found to be 1.7075 and 1.9080 times, respectively, more likely to have positive expectations for the transition toward increased use of AVs. Interestingly, our studies contradict to the findings of other studies, in that we did not find younger people to be more likely to have positive attitudes towards AVs than elderly people [40]. The results demonstrate that this is not necessarily true; however, it requires more detailed investigation. A summary of all the responses to questions 17-31 is shown in Figure 10. The cumulative percentages for the two highest responses on the Linkert scale of 1-5, i.e., 0, 25, 50, 75, 100, are given in Figure 10. We can see that perceptions of safety, addressed in question 18, is the most important factor, accounting for 93% of the responses. Following safety are accuracy of driving, security in terms of anti-hacking measures, efficiency, comfort, health, privacy, and performance. The price of new technologies and the costs of using an AV are next on the scale. These factors are having a negative effect on peoples' decisions to accept these new technologies and invest in cars with higher levels of automation. Because we have a synergy of two transitions happening now, the transition to wider use of EVs and the transition to wider use of AVs, it is interesting to note that the costs of buying new EV is still higher, but the maintenance and usage costs are lower.