Good practice:

Passenger satisfaction for driverless e-bus service in Merano

Objectives:
1 ) to assess the level of interest
2 ) to assess the acceptance ratio for the service
3 ) to position in a correct manner the product/service within the urban mobility offer
4) to collect and evaluate doubts and questions about driverless e-bus
5) data processing and presenting results.
Methodology used:
Face to face interviews with passengers boarding the shuttle and after disembarking on tour completion, This is part of a larger test-drive described also in another eBussed Good Practice by this same partner.

Target Stakeholders and beneficiaries:
a) Citizens who carried out the test on board
b) Citizens who were spectators along the bus-route

For an optimal management of the flow of people wishing to test the shuttle and to give visibility to the project and the Interreg Italy-Switzerland programme, it was also decided to provide a small stand and a screen-printing specially designed for the initiative.
Total cost 4,500 €

Interesting information collected on:
1) assessment of the level of interest of respondents in new technologies (autonomous driving, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, 5G etc.)
2) evaluation of the degree of confidence in autonomous driving (before the on-board test)
3) evaluation of the degree of confidence in autonomous driving (after)
4) Evaluation of the interest towards new mobility services
5) Recurrent doubts/questions
6) Motivations for people not interested in taking the test drive

All the people who took the test on board received a briefing during the journey to explain the purpose of the initiative, the main functions and the technology of the autonomous system self-driving shuttle.
During the journey (average of 6' ) space was left for spontaneous questions and comments

It is worth highlighting the high presence of elderly people and pensioners (in the morning) showing a high level of interest and attention to the new urban means of transport.
Among young people there was a high degree of technical knowledge and propensity to go digital.
Confidence in driverless technology (and the vehicle in general) did improve considerably after the test drive.
Amongst perplexities and doubts, the problems raised were:
- possible loss of employment by drivers
- security against from hacker attacks
- inappropriate behaviour on board.
The two-phase interview practice can be easily duplicated in similar circumstances. It will be necessary to check legislative conditions to prevent or facilitate the experimental adoption of driverless public transport means.
For more information, please contact:
NOI Techpark
Dott. Roberto Cavaliere
[email protected]