PAsCAL D7.1 Impact areas and paths

The main aim of the PASCAL project is to create the Guide2Autonomy that will improve the understanding of the implications of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAV) on society as well as educate their future drivers, passengers and those who will have to share the road with them.

This deliverable D7.1 “Impact areas and paths” identifies the different impact areas and pathways that allows us to assess the impacts in the different areas such as from the perspective of the human individual, wider public acceptance and societal needs, including vulnerable groups. It will lay the basis for an indicator based impact assessment framework to be developed in task 7.2. Gaps are defined for which further research is needed and to which PAsCAL will partly be able to contribute.

The document will allow researchers to adopt a more human centred approach in their research evaluations and provide to policy makers a better understanding of how they can bring the different societal needs into the development and debate on the future of CAV.

Until now, there is little academic research that focusses on the behavioural and associated social and societal impacts of CAVs (less than 6%) of the total research. On the basis of the PAsCAL literature research different human and societal impact areas were identified that can be classified as follow:

• Features of CAV technology and services, including where potential behavioural factors (i.e. motivators and barriers) are at stake;

• Perceptions of individuals (e.g. users, drivers, pilots, cyclists),

  acceptance of technology and willingness to use CAVs;

• Impact areas related to the specific needs of vulnerable groups (e.g. elderly, impaired, children), including a spatial division between

  urban and rural areas; and finally

• wider societal impact areas.

  Chapter 3 of this document focuses on the different CAV technology and services features, as well as the individual perceptions, attitudes and behavioral intentions. Chapter 4 describes the different vulnerable group related impact areas, whereas chapter 5 details the wider societal related impact areas. Chapter 6 lists identified research gaps and how in PAsCAL we intend to determine the individual, vulnerable group and societal impacts levels and influence on each other.

  The present version of the framework is probably the very first impact areas definition developed from the user and societal point of view. During the course of the project feedback will be collected and later updates will be made to ensure the acceptance and use of the framework in further CAV research.