**1. Introduction**

The role of the automotive industry in industrialization is huge. This industry is one of the most important for the Polish economy. It is also responsible for a significant number of jobs, as well as many different investments and revenues for the public finance sector. Importantly, this industry directly or indirectly affects other sectors of the economy. Three technological megatrends of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) are indicated, i.e., 1. Communication, 2. artificial intelligence and 3. flexible automation. The technology of the fully autonomous vehicle (AV) is best adapted to these megatrends, especially in the case of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), which enable communication between vehicles, infrastructure and other road users (so-called V2X connectivity) [1,2]. Automated driving is a major trend in the automotive industry as it promises to increase road safety and driver comfort [3].

One of the key elements in the development of AV technology is the progress related to the conversion of vehicle drive systems to electric drives. Currently, more and more vehicle manufacturers offer hybrid or electric vehicles. This will certainly affect the development of the industry related to electric driving and increase the level of employment in these sectors of the economy. Over the past decade, significant progress has been made in the field of automated driving systems (ADS), and AV technology is gaining more and more attention from vehicle manufacturers, technology companies, decision makers and the general public. Recent dynamic changes in vehicle technology like advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) (such as, e.g., automatic braking, automatic cruise control, intelligent speed assistance, line maintenance assistance systems, etc.) bring us closer to increasingly autonomous and independent vehicles, which will use these solutions.

**Citation:** Stoma, M.; Dudziak, A.; Caban, J.; Dro ´zdziel, P. The Future of Autonomous Vehicles in the Opinion of Automotive Market Users. *Energies* **2021**, *14*, 4777. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/en14164777

Academic Editors: Guzek Marek and Yair Wiseman

Received: 30 June 2021 Accepted: 4 August 2021 Published: 6 August 2021

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This development is supplemented by the parallel development of connectedness and communication in vehicles. Therefore, taking into account current dynamics and progress, it can be expected that these systems will continue to develop, and the technology of automated driving will lead to a change in the paradigm in transport systems in terms of comfort of use, choice of mode and business models [4].

Autonomous vehicles include various vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks and drones, which are based on artificial intelligence with varying degrees of human participation. By processing and analyzing billions of data from a number of sensors, cameras and radar systems every second, AVs can effectively "see" the road and respond to changing conditions or overcome obstacles.

The ability of autonomous vehicles to operate without human intervention depends on their level of technological sophistication, in accordance with the current six-degree autonomy scale proposed by the International Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) [5,6] (see Figure 1) from level 0 (without automation) to level 5 (full unlimited automation); levels 1 to 3 are considered "semi-autonomous":


**Figure 1.** Level of driving automation proposed by SAE [7].

The latest car communication is designed to allow continuous, reliable and fast interaction between moving vehicles. They are usually divided into four use cases: vehicles to other vehicles (V2V), vehicles to the road-side infrastructure (V2I), vehicles to pedestrians (V2P), vehicles to devices (V2D) and vehicles to the cellular network (V2N). Together, these use cases are known as V2X—vehicles to everything [8]. It is anticipated that the wide-scale application of V2X technology can greatly improve transport safety and particularly significantly reduce vehicle collisions, especially in light vehicle accidents, by improving situational awareness. There are two types of V2X communication technology depending on the underlying technology being used: WLAN-based and cellular-based (C-V2X) technologies based on LTE [9–13]. Technology based on Wi-Fi is based on the standard IEEE802.11p for vehicular communication. It is also known as ITS-G5—Wireless short range to Intelligent Transport System, or DSRC—Dedicated Short-Range Communications (American or European protocol, respectively) [12]. C-V2X uses 3GPP—The Third Generation Partnership Project, 4G—The fourth generation, LTE—long-term evolution, or 5G—the fifth generation new radio (NR) connectivity to transmit and receive signals [13]. It uses two complementary transmission modes. The first is V2V, V2I and V2P. In this mode, C-V2X works independently of the cellular networks and it uses a PC5 interface for communication. The second mode is cellular network communications, in which C-V2X employs the mobile telephony network to enable vehicles to receive information about road and traffic conditions in the area. It uses LTE–Uu interface for communication, particularly for V2N [12,13].

AVs, despite the fact that they are still at an early stage of development and implementation, could mean a huge revolution not only in transport and the automotive industry, generating significant benefits in the long run in terms of transport accessibility, safety, traffic flow, emissions, fuel consumption and comfort. Many scientists believe that the large-scale deployment of AVs will bring about transformational changes in mobility and accessibility, travel patterns, safety and security, energy efficiency, emissions, employment, data availability, management and business models [14–16]. In the publications [17–20], the authors note the benefits for logistics and technical tasks in the workplace. Another aspect of the use of AVs is the management of urban space and the change in the demand for parking spaces depending on the change of ownership and shared use of autonomous vehicles (SAVs) [21,22]. SAVs represent an emerging alternative for driverless and nodemand transport [23], offering a compromise between private ownership and public transport [24]. Advanced technologies and systems used in this type of vehicles will also have a significant impact on other sectors of the modern market, such as trade, logistics, construction, insurance and related industries. A widespread transition to autonomous and electric vehicles would also change our daily lives. GM CEO Mary Barra refers to this future as "zero accidents, zero emissions and zero fatalities" [25]. In the literature on the subject, one can find many scientific papers on the vision zero perspective in various European countries [26–29]. These are, however, mainly papers about the "vision zero" concept as such, and there is only a limited number of empirical studies available. The European Union set out a "vision zero" target of reducing the number of fatal road accidents to almost zero by 2050. However, all these potential economic, ecological and social benefits will not be achieved until AVs are accepted and used by the majority of society [30,31]. Another important issue often raised in various studies is the regulation of legal issues [32–34], primarily concerning liability and security [35].

Another very important aspect related to AVs is the concept of smart cities, which practically focuses on the transformation of cities based on sustainable development. Smart city-related guidelines supply EU countries with general ideas on handling and controlling social, economic and technological change. Technologies for transport face the great challenges by globalization, re-urbanization and the change of social mobility behavior [36]. Passenger transportation is an indispensable and elementary service, in addition, there is a large share of freight traffic in urban areas. For their current problems there are several answers, one of them being smart cities' sub-systems, or smart mobility [37,38]. Smart mobility can be divided into two segments: (1) innovative solutions and (2) development of current services. Innovative solutions are not present in every urban transportation system; however, they play a main role in smart mobility-oriented development [39]. AVs and EVs are tools on the vehicle side. Mobility as a service (MaaS) is a new concept [39], with which both demand-driven service planning and the personalization of services are possible.

One of the important and highly researched effects of AVs is their effect on urban space usage and parking tendencies. Parking services are also moving to automated solutions; P+R parking lots and connectivity with public transportation networks are the most important issues [36]. One of the latest research directions is urban space saving by normalizing parking issues. Even a third of the total traffic time during peak traffic periods is related to finding parking spaces in congested urban areas. The appropriate and adequate information about the number of free places, their location, etc., can reduce even by 30% the traffic volume in some cases [40]. The parking management has to be integrated in the traffic management and parking-related measures have to be adjusted to traffic management measures [40]. AVs also cope well with this problem thanks to V2V and V2I communication.

Due to the fact that AVs are currently undergoing various tests and have not yet been introduced to the market on a large scale, few people have been in contact with this technology so far. However, the concept itself raises a lot of controversy and doubt, and it seems that it still remains in the field of innovative solutions. As already mentioned, after analyzing the available literature, it was found that there are still few results of research carried out in this area, allowing for the assessment of the knowledge of the AV concept, its popularity, possibilities of implementation, as well as barriers inhibiting or even preventing its dissemination. This is particularly true for less urbanized, industrialized or typically agricultural areas, where smaller towns and rural areas predominate, and their inhabitants are often not up-to-date with modern technologies. Taking the above into account, the aim of the article is an attempt to partially fill the literature gaps, and hence to examine and assess the attitudes and perception of potential AV users and current users of traditional cars, of the concept of this type of vehicle, as well as to assess their development prospects, mainly through the prism of barriers and factors inhibiting the introduction of the analyzed solution on Polish roads.
