Are passengers willing to ride on autonomous cruise-ships?

This study researches cruise-ship passengers’ Willingness to Ride (WTR) onboard a vessel with either a human operator or a completely autonomous system. We utilized a between-subjects quasi-experimental design with 578 participants from the U.S. using Amazon's MTurk. WTR was measured using an adapted version of the Willingness to Fly scale. The results showed that while all participants were significantly less willing to ride onboard autonomous cruise-ships, male participants had significantly higher WTR. Interestingly, male participants’ WTR was positive indicating a positive perception towards automation, a new finding in autonomous transportation research. Participants also rated their feelings towards the scenarios using pictorial representations of the six universal emotions. A mediation analysis on this affect data determined which emotions mediated the relationship between the condition and willingness. The results showed that fear and happiness are the predominant driving forces behind these perceptions. The findings of this study will be valuable in understanding the perceptions of cruise consumers and can help inform policy and decision makers within the industry about perceptions as well as the underlying emotional factors that influence those perceptions.