**5. Discussion**

AVs show great potential to radically change both the structure of cities and the dynamics of transport systems. Technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), e.g., lane keeping and adaptive cruise control, are already available on new vehicle models, and there is likely to be a gradual shift towards autonomy in the coming years.

The research results described in this paper show that changes to vehicle autonomy are generally well perceived by respondents and are only a matter of time. Similar statements can be found in the literature. Levinson and Krizek [32] suggest that full automation may be required in all new US vehicles by 2030 and that "human drivers will eventually be banned from public roads".

One of the most cited studies on AV adoption is the Litman study [25], which predicted that automated driving would become a standard feature of most new vehicles by 2050 and that AV would account for around 40–60% of vehicles, 80–100% of vehicle sales and 50–80% of vehicle travel. Litman also predicted that the beneficial effects of AV in increasing road safety and reducing traffic congestion would probably appear between 2040 and 2060. Bansal and Kockelman [39] predict that, by 2045, 24.8–87.2% of vehicle fleets will be accepted by self-propelled cars (SAE level 5). Their findings further revealed that AVs were viewed as a form of "somewhat low-risk" transport, and while there were concerns, there was little opposition to the prospect of their use on public roads.

The results obtained in the presented study regarding security as the main advantage of the possibility of using AV are similar to those achieved by Kyriakidis et al. [52], who found that gaining end-user trust in the issues of data security, protection and privacy will be critical to the widespread implementation of AV in the future.

Payre et al. [53] conducted a survey among 421 people. Automated driving in this group was unconditionally accepted by 68.1%, with higher acceptance depending on the type of driving, including motorway driving, driving in the presence of traffic congestion and automatic parking. Similar results were obtained in a study by Howard and Dai [54], in Berkeley, California. People in this study were most attracted to the potential benefits of safety, parking and multitasking [55], which is also reflected in the results of the research presented in this paper. In our survey, 68% of respondents (396 people) confirmed that AV will be gradually introduced to our market, which confirms the high acceptance of this technology by Poles.

Own research also showed that AVs are generally viewed in a positive light; in terms of qualitative risk perception, they have been assessed relatively well compared to the existing modes of transport, and there has been little opposition to them. It would therefore seem that the idea of AV on public roads is already accepted by many people. However, further findings indicate that considerable efforts are still needed to encourage public acceptance. As in the research by Hulse et al. [17], despite an obvious low negative, concerns were expressed not only relating to road safety issues. Moreover, significant associations have been found between perceived risk assessments or attitudes and various factors, including road user populations, gender and age, meaning that AV perceptions vary, something that was also reflected in our own findings.

Furthermore, Hohenberger et al. [56] found that emotions and affective responses to AV indicate gender differences in the willingness to use automated vehicles. In particular, men were found to be more likely to predict pleasure than anxiety about wanting to use AV. Similar conclusions were also given in Reference [17], which showed that, compared to cars operated by people, AVs were perceived differently depending on gender and age-men, and younger adults showed greater acceptance of them.

It should be emphasized that the respondents participating in the research conducted by the authors of this article also pointed to numerous negative views on the problem of functioning in the AV space. This corresponds to the results of the research by Schoettle and Sivak [57], wherein respondents similarly also revealed numerous concerns about AV travel. The greatest concerns were system or hardware failures with security implications. Moreover, participants were very concerned about the fact that the AVs did not give the option to take control of the vehicle, and they thought about the fact that other types of road vehicles are also autonomous. While there were some differences in the survey responses depending on the age of the participant (e.g., older participants were more likely than younger participants to say they would not drive AV), gender differences were detected in nearly all questions, with women being less convinced of AV than men. It should be added that References [10,57] present research of a more global nature, i.e., among the inhabitants of China, India, Japan, the United States, Great Britain and Australia. As can be seen, such fears and positions indicated in the own research among Polish respondents do not only occur locally, but show global trends. It can therefore be said that there are similar social concerns with regard to AV technology regardless of where you live.

In other studies that are available in the literature on the subject, respondents also stated that they could not afford the additional costs. It also took into account the risk context when unknown entities can gain access to data, i.e., through hacking; therefore, many participants in many studies conducted so far had clear concerns about privacy policy [58], which is also consistent with the results of own research.

At present, autonomous vehicles are still in the trial phase and have not yet been introduced into regular operation in any country. Scientific publications discussing organizational issues related to the functioning of transport systems, in which autonomous vehicles are present, are still mainly based on theoretical assumptions.

One of the problems in implementing of technology AV is the interaction between autonomous vehicles and other road users [59], including non-motorized ones, i.e., cyclists and pedestrians, who cannot easily be controlled by traffic control systems.

The sustainable development policy should primarily aim at eliminating the negative effects of motorization, such as congestion in cities, air pollution, the lack or unequal accessibility of transport, as well as the increasing costs of infrastructure maintenance. National governments should initiate close cooperation between vehicle manufacturers and local authorities in terms of strategies for implementing available technological solutions. However, the lack of precise visions of the technical and organizational model of automation means that local and regional authorities do not want to make specific planning decisions in this area yet. This is because of the high risk due to the many unknowns and sometimes because of more urgent investment needs [60]. The obtained results of our own and other social research may be helpful in developing assumptions for further development of urbanized areas and autonomous means of transport.

It should be assumed that the safety and reliability of AV will continue to increase with the progress of civilization and technology. Public infrastructure will begin to evolve to support AV. New business models will be created. Intelligent mobility will become a reality as cities become "smarter" and cars become autonomous. Companies and car manufacturers are ready for AV, while the biggest unknown is whether our society is ready for such a solution. Indeed, the trend of vehicle automation technology by major vehicle manufacturing industries is expected to move closer to highly automated or fully autonomous vehicles through technological advances in the robotics and artificial intelligence sectors. This is because, as also shown in our own research, AVs have great potential to increase mobility. In some cases, this situation may indicate the need to change from the existing infrastructure solutions to the habits of drivers, and it will certainly be a big revolution on the automotive market.

#### **6. Conclusions**

As a result of the research and analysis of their results, the following observations and conclusions were formulated.

Firstly, the analysis of the correspondence found that young people are most favorable to the concept of AV, and this applies to both women and men. EVs are in second place, dominating among women in the 26–40 age group and among men in the 41–60 age group. It was also noted that there are advantages over disadvantages to AV. Moreover, due to their age, the participants of the study had similar opinions on AV. Over 40% of respondents indicated that if AV was widely used, they would feel safer. On the other hand, most of the people interviewed are concerned about cybersecurity and privacy related to the technologies used. Among the benefits of using AV vehicles, the respondents indicated mainly comfort, more efficient use of time, greater safety and less stress related to driving. The issues of greater mobility and independence of people with disabilities, the elderly or those unable to drive a car turned out to be very important. The respondents paid less attention to access to services, savings in parking spaces or lower transport congestion.

Our own conducted research indicated some gender differences and those resulting from the age of the respondents. However, it is worth emphasizing that women aged 41–60 paid attention primarily to safety and mobility; in turn, women over 60 years of age clearly indicated less stress while driving. Among the disadvantages, women most often indicated the no control over electronics and control systems, while men, as well as the no control over the system, indicated the no pleasure in driving and the fear of becoming weaned from driving and the loss of this ability. Both women and men also noticed the social effect of eliminating the profession of taxi driver. Moreover, it was found that the local perception of the AV concept is positive and consistent with global trends in this area.

**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, A.D., M.S. and J.C.; methodology, A.D. and M.S.; software, A.D.; validation, M.S., J.C. and A.K.; formal analysis, A.D. and J.C.; investigation, A.D., M.S. and J.C.; resources, A.D., M.S., A.K. and J.C.; data curation, A.D.; writing—original draft preparation, M.S., A.D., J.C. and A.K.; writing—review and editing, A.D., M.S. and J.C.; visualization, A.D. and A.K.; supervision, M.S. and A.D.; project administration, A.D. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** Funded from the "Excellent science" program of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education as a part of the contract no. DNK/SP/465641/2020 "The role of the agricultural engineering and environmental engineering in the sustainable agriculture development".

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** Not applicable.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.

### **References**

