In the last months, the VENTURER social research team has undertaken and analysed a survey of South Gloucestershire and Bristol residents on the willingness to share and pay for autonomous vehicles. Survey respondents were using the different urban transport modes available in roughly the same proportions to that of the Bristol-South Gloucestershire population. Respondents were presented with four possible types of autonomous vehicle, all operating completely without a driver, to gauge their interest. This included:
- a privately-owned and used car;
- an exclusively used taxi on demand;
- a shared taxi which would be lower cost to use than an exclusive taxi; and
- an autonomous bus which would be smaller and more frequent than typical buses today.