A Review of Perceived Risk Role in Autonomous Vehicles Acceptance

The purpose of this study is to critically review literature pertaining to the theoretical concept of perceived risk and its role in autonomous vehicle (AV) studies. A mapping on the placement of perceived risk to explain its position concerning AV acceptance either as a direct predictor or mediator as well as the number of dimensions used (i.e., single or multi-dimensions) in the context of AV, will be derived based on the critical review. Interestingly, a critical gap was discovered in which very little attention had been paid to the use of perceived risk as the multidimensional constructs that included financial risk, time risk, performance risk, psychological risk, social risk, and physical risk. The embedded meaning in the single perceived risk term might be one of the reasons leading to the inconclusive findings on the understanding of public acceptance of AVs. Furthermore, the review revealed that the role of perceived risk could be classified into four clusters using a knowledge map. This study enriches the literature by providing a summary framework map for various dimensions of perceived risk used in studying the public acceptance of AVs. Insights of the framework can help researchers to formulate better future research directions in evaluating the impacts of constructs in adopting AVs.