ANTECEDENTS TO HIGHLY AUTOMATED VEHICLE USAGE TO IMPROVE CHILDHOOD INDEPENDENT MOBILITY

Childhood Independent Mobility (CIM) has numerous cognitive and physical benefits forchildren but has been on a steady decline for many years. With the rapid increase in vehicle automation technology, it is imperative to understand when and why parents may decide to let their children travel independently in Highly Automated Vehicles (HAVs). Study one created and validated a measure of Parental Intention to transport children in these vehicles. Further, this additional measure, Parental Intention to transport children in automated Vehicles (PI), was examined relative to pre-existing technology acceptance models. PI showed satisfactory reliability, as well as satisfactory global and local fit, making it a viable measure for future analyses. Study two focused on a new parallel mediating model between Parental Fear (PF), Fear of Strangers (FoS), Perceived Positive Potentiality of Outdoor Autonomy (PPAC), and PI with CIM. Study two provided the first link between CIM measures related to intention to use HAVs to transport children. Study three amended measures at the intersection of CIM and HAV research, to find unique predictors for PI. The newly amended measures were Perceived Travel Competence (PTC), Perceived Disapproval from Others (PDO), and Parental Automated Vehicle Fear (PAVF), and Trust in Automation (TiA). These three measures may provide unique predictions into why parents might let their child use HAVs unsupervised. Each study tackled behavioral intention from different theoretical perspectives: First, from automated vehicles, then from independent mobility, and last, from the intersection of these two research areas.

Author

• Hickerson, Kyle

• Automated Vehicles
• Childhood Independent Mobility
• Structural Equation Modeling
• Technology Acceptance

Identifier

hdl:1920/14380

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/14380