How people speak about autonomous cars - an analysis of internet discussions in Czech Republic

With a huge development of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and its technology, the question of successful implementation arises. The acceptance of this technology by the end users stands for an important factor of the implementation. For this, general attitudes toward autonomous vehicles and various concerns of people provide important information. The aim of this paper is to explore main topics and concerns regarding the issue of autonomous vehicles in the Czech population. The qualitative analysis of internet discussions beneath news articles about autonomous vehicles (AVs) on popular Czech news portals was performed. Two separated data collections were performed for a total of 17 articles from July 2014 to February 2020 to address the changes in attitudes through time. Content analysis revealed a general skepticism and a large number of concerns. The negativity and fear of the Czech discussants stemmed mainly from insufficient knowledge of the topic. Content analysis revealed main topics concerned the introduction of autonomous mobility into general practice in terms of time (when), experience (especially previous negative experience with elements of control automation), and analogy (comparisons to other modes of transport). Other important topics addressed driving pleasure, (dis)trust of manufacturers, legal and ethical questions about AV, risk of hacker attacks, reactions of drivers of conventional vehicles, carsharing, financial use of AV, manual takeover, application of AV only for some modes of transportation (e.g., freight transport), and a difficulty of introducing AVs into the Czech environment. In contrast to foreign opinion polls, there were no topics related to privacy and the misuse of personal data. It was not possible to find socio-demographic variables from the discussion threads, but information about the preference of news portals by older age groups was obtained from the data on the monitored portals. Assuming that authors of the comments were older people, the negative attitude towards AV corresponds to the current literature. In order to ensure representative data, it will be necessary to identify socio-demographic variables and the extension of the analyzed discussion threads to social networks as part of further research. Without these preconditions, it will be difficult to determine accurate evaluations and possibly to create an educational campaign for the general public focused on autonomous mobility.