Silvia Della Santa

Progetto di ricerca
Testing and Acceptance of autonomous vehicles. Living Labs and users’ attitude studies.

The automotive sector is among the biggest investors in R&D. In 2019, according to the ACEA (European Automobile Manufacturers Association) report, R&D expenditure for the European automotive industry amounted to around 58 billion of euros (ACEA, 2019), surpassing traditionally high-innovation fields such as pharmaceutical or biomedical. Among the strands of innovation characterizing this sector, autonomous vehicles (AVs) are included, fitting in the landscape of the fourth industrial revolution, where the evaluative complexity of technological innovations increases exponentially and defines a deep sectoral contamination. AVs are perceived as one of the fundamental disruptors in the upcoming technology revolution and they have received an increasing attention in recent years. The complexity of the issues emerging from these technological innovations implies the need for a broader reflection with respect to the processes of acceptance and future diffusion of AVs. The following thesis, therefore, aims to analyse two different approaches – Living Labs and models investigating users’ attitude toward new technologies – that, assuming a complementary perspective, have the ultimate goal to facilitate and investigate the processes of technology acceptance for AVs.

Pubblicazioni

•  Della Santa, S., Tagliazucchi, G., Marchi, G. (2022) How does the space influence Living Labs? Evidence from two automotive experiences. R&D Management. DOI: 10.1111/radm.12554