The advent of fully automated road vehicles is a topic currently getting attention in the field of transport as well as futures research: the technology is assumed to radically change the way we move in the future as well as to expand and differentiate existing mobility concepts. Still, the implications of automated driving are first and foremost discussed from a technological point of view and uncertainty about how this transition might take place remains. The embedding in the system of automobility respectively the transport system as a whole, currently lacks analytical as well as empirical examination. In our paper, we will discuss the topic in relation to three possible sociotechnical transition scenarios: (1) evolution, (2) revolution and (3) transformation. We will extrapolate different scenarios of automated driving based on current technical, economic, infrastructural, spatial, and transport developments and discuss its consequences for the transport system and mobility concepts.

What attitudes and expectations do (potential) future users, and the public at large, bring to the new technology of autonomous driving? Alongside the technical and legal areas of research, this question is moving into ever-greater focus. The emerging debates assume that a switch from conventional to autonomous driving might bring about clear changes for all road users. From these perspectives—individual users and society—the question of acceptance arises. To what extent are individuals ready to use fully-automated vehicles, and to what extent are we as a society prepared to accept a transport system with fully automated vehicles on the road?

Having entered public and scientific debate only recently, automated driving is a fresh topic. It is increasingly acknowledged that automated driving requires broader examination, beyond technical issues, to include individual and societal acceptance, which is a prerequisite for its implementation. The challenge for empirical research, however, is that nonprofessional individuals have little knowledge of and usually no experience with driverless cars. The paper presents an innovative approach to explore and structure the acceptance of automated driving. This study was made by analyzing comments on German and U.S. print media website articles. The statements were scanned for topics discussed by the participants. The method applied three steps: statement collection, issue categorization, and importance and connotation assessment (positive and negative). Further analysis involved contrasting German and U.S. comments. The results indicated a heterogeneous discussion of automated driving in both countries without, however, being evidently for or against it. Although the U.S. statements addressed societal aspects much more, the Germans often focused on liability questions. The method proved relevant in structuring the topic and laying a solid foundation for empirical research on a new mode of transportation's acceptance.

New, i.e., shared and digitized, mobility services have been entering urban mobility markets around the globe. Among these new offerings is ridepooling, a mobility solution that bundles requests from passengers with similar routes in real-time and matches them with a vehicle. Ridepooling is quite novel in Germany and knowledge about users, changes in travel behavior, and impacts on the urban traffic system is scarce. To address this gap, we conducted an online survey among users and non-users of MOIA, a German ridepooling provider. Over 12,000 respondents completed the survey. The article presents results on ridepooling users’ characteristics and usage patterns. We found that MOIA users cover all age groups and are multimodal travelers—which leads us to assume that ridepooling enriches mobility portfolios and also serves as an alternative to the private car. MOIA is mostly used occasionally and, in particular, during the evening or the night. A specific focus of the article lies on users with mobility impairments as well as how and by whom ridepooling is used on work-related trips. Both topics are particularly relevant in light of changing travel patterns and transforming urban transport systems towards more sustainability.

Although autonomous driving is characterized (see Chap. 1 ) by the definition for “fully automated” according to BASt [ 1 ] as well as the quote by Feil [ 2 ] “self-determination within the scope of an higher (moral) law”, it is possible to come up with a large variety of usage scenarios and specifications for autonomous driving.