The adoption of self-driving vehicles in Africa: insight from Ghana

Abstract

With the recent advancements in autonomous vehicles as a means of providing sustainable transport, governments, policymakers and automobile companies, including those in the emerging economies, need to understand what drives the adoption of the technology among people. This paper, for that matter, examines the factors that influence the intention of Ghanaians to use autonomous vehicles (AVs). The Technology Acceptance Model was adopted, extended and data analysed by using multiple linear regression in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 21 and then the PROCESS macro add-on. Subjective norm, attitude, and awareness were found to have a significant and positive direct influence on intention to use AVs. Intention to use AVs varies significantly by age and monthly income. Trust, perceived risk, perceived benefit, and perceived ease of use have a significant indirect effect on the intention to use AVs. Perceived usefulness has both a direct significant influence on intention to use AVs and a significant indirect effect on intention to use AVs when partially mediated by attitude. Recommendations have been given to government and all transport stakeholders.

Keywords

• Autonomous vehicles
• intention
• technology acceptance model
• sustainable mobility
• Ghana