What is the acceptability of the autonomous vehicle for disab led people ? The case of a virtual reality application: test and evaluation.

This study aims to evaluate the acceptability of people with disabilities towards connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV). For this purpose, a virtual reality application, simulating two types of fully autonomous shuttles and a conventional bus, was developed and tested by eleven participants with physical disabilities. The results show that the subjects have a relatively high trust in the autonomous transport system and prefer it to the conventional bus. The premium autonomous shuttle with more services on board was particularly appreciated by the subjects. These results are encouraging and consistent with research conducted on the general population. It seems necessary to confirm these acceptability results by testing larger panels in real life situations.