Macchina a guida completamente automatizzata: piace di più agli uomini o alle donne e perché?

In recent years, research regarding the use of fully autonomous cars (FACs) has been intensified. This research has revealed gender difference in the acceptance of FACs: men imagine themselves using this type of cars more than women (Schoettle and Sivak, 2014); they would buy the car with higher probability than women (Payre, Cestac and Delhomme, 2014) and would pay more to own one (Kyriadikis, Happee and de Winter, 2015). In order to verify if these trends highlighted in the international literature also exist in Italy, we conducted a survey with 160 participants (39% men) with a driving license. In addition to measures of use and possession of the fully autonomous cars, various dimensions have been investigated that may be considered such as antecedents of the intention to use and/or purchase (perceived advantages of and worries about FACs). In addition, we measured the attitude towards technological information, which is a stable characteristic. The results of our research confirm the trends highlighted in international literature: compared to women, men are more in favour of FACs, are more interested in owning one, and have a more positive attitude towards using it, a greater awareness of the benefits it brings, lower fear of risks and lower concern for the problems arising from its use. Gender differences are not significantly moderated by the individual characteristics we measured, while they appear to be mediated by favourable attitudes towards information technology. Overall, the results appear in line with a stereotypical view of women described as less practical to technological innovation.