Autonomous vehicles (AVs) will transform transport, but public opinion will play a key role in decisions on how widely and quickly they are adopted. The purpose of the study presented here was to investigate community’s views on that transition. As a method for primary data collection on public awareness, attitudes, and readiness to use autonomous cars, survey was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Following that, we used statistical tools to analyse responses. Our findings indicate that the participants are largely receptive to using new technologies and had favourable attitudes towards the transition. Ordinal logistic regression model showed a wide variation in public opinion regarding the expected benefits that may accompany the transition. Our findings reveal that awareness of AVs’ benefits is positively correlated with the age of participants. Perceived costs on one side, and convenience and safety on the other, were found to have had a substantial impact on the opinions of the participants. Investigation presented here shows a sample of the public’s perception of AVs in Saudi Arabia. This can guide the development of AVs and their deployment in that region as well as worldwide.

This paper presents a scientometric and bibliometric literature review of the research on transitions to autonomous and electric vehicles. We discuss the main characteristics, evolution, and various transitional issues, identifying potential trends for future research. The Scopus and WoS search for relevant research articles generated a corpus of 4693 articles, which we analyzed using VOSviewer visualization software. This result shows that the transition research is interdisciplinary, with 54 scientific areas identified. Analysis requires an understanding of the broader aspects of the automotive industry, trends related to sustainability, environment protection, road safety, public policies, market factors and other business, and legal and management issues. This study highlights the need for more research to address the challenges of this global transition in the automotive industry. Topics for future research are constant improvements in AI algorithms used in AVs, innovations in green energy sources, and storage solutions for EVs. This is leading to new innovative business models and platforms. Further to that, the conclusion is that the impact of the transition to a shared economy, the emergency of mobility as a service, and public acceptance of the technology have to be comprehensively considered. The vehicle of the future is seen as a smart electric car, running on green energy, and utilizing various levels of automation up to full autonomy.

Autonomous vehicles (AV)s will transform transport, but public opinion will play a key role in the decision how widely and quickly, they will be adopted. The purpose of the study presented here, was to investigate community’s views on the transition. As a method for primary data collection on public awareness, attitudes, and readiness to use autonomous cars, survey was conducted in Saudi Arabia. Following that, we have used statistical tools to analyse responses. Our findings indicate that the participants are mainly open to use new technology and had favourable attitude towards transition. Ordinal logistic regression model showed a wide variation in public opinion regarding the expected benefits that may accompany the transition, despite an average high score on this factor. Our findings reveal that awareness of AVs' benefits is more positively correlated to the age of participants. Perceived cost, on one side, and convenience, and safety, on the other side, have substantial impact on opinions. Investigation, presented here, shows how AVs are seen in Saudi Arabia. This can guide the development of AVs and deployment in that region.