Vehicle automation for safety and comfort: familiarity, implementation, and willingness to pay among Indian consumers

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) play a pivotal role in enhancing road safety and driving convenience by reducing human intervention. However, their usage in India is currently limited to premium cars. This study investigates consumer familiarity with ADAS, their choice of ADAS implementation models (compulsory features, subscription-based services, and optional add-ons), and their preference for ADAS-equipped vehicles in the emerging market of Chandigarh, India. An ordinal choice model, an Integrated choice and latent variable (ICLV) model, and a hybrid choice model are respectively used to achieve these objectives. The latter model estimates the varied Willingness to pay (WTP) for ADAS features among different market segments. The current study extends existing literature on ADAS adoption by incorporating a reference-dependent framework that captures the non-linear cost perception among people. The data for the study were collected using a questionnaire survey that included stated choice experiments. Our findings reveal that the low-income group and females are less familiar with ADAS. Furthermore, higher levels of ambivalence among individuals were associated with a lower preference for the compulsory implementation of ADAS. Individuals were more likely to invest in driving control assistance features like adaptive cruise control than collision intervention systems. The WTP for ADAS features varied between 96953 Indian rupees (INR) (1117.02 USD) to 205971 INR (2373.05 USD) for market segments with varied purchasing power.