The iMobility Challenge project aims to demonstrate, promote and boost the deployment of ICT systems for energy efficient and sustainable mobility. The project also takes safety into account in all its activities because safety is an essential element of sustainability of transport and mobility and also reflected in the work carried out by iMobility Forum. In addition to promotion of ICT systems for energy efficient and sustainable mobility, iMobility Challenge carries out support studies to study the deployment status and impacts of the systems, to assess consumer awareness and demand and to obtain feedback from the users of the systems. The main objective of the study is to analyse car users’ awareness of the selected iMobility technologies and the demand for the systems. The aim of the study is to cover car users’ awareness, knowledge and experiences with the systems under analysis as well as users’ willingness to pay for the systems. This objective was approached by organising a standardized survey in a common format in five European countries. The main focus of the iMobility Challenge is on cooperative systems and systems contributing to energy efficient and sustainable mobility. The systems analysed in this study have been selected from two groups of systems: systems proposed for promotion in the mapping of systems performed earlier in the project and priority iMobility systems covered by earlier eSafety Challenge consumer studies. The systems which were chosen for analysis are: eco-driving assistance, real-time traffic information, start-stop assistant, tire pressure monitoring system, emergency braking and speed alert. The data was collected by standardized internet surveys in five member states: Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, The Netherlands and Spain — to cover different areas, and potentially different opinions of the drivers. The driver sample (more than 1000 filled in questionnaires per country) was drawn from national panels. Based on the analysis of background information, the sample was seen as representative in each country. In this study, user awareness was measured by asking whether the respondent had heard or read about the system or used it by himself or herself. The demand for the systems was measured by asking the participants of the study how much they would be willing to pay for a given system. Earlier studies which have provided information on users’ awareness and demand such as iCar Support, iMobility Support, eSafety Challenge and eCoMove were reviewed shortly in the report. Drivers’ awareness of the studied systems varied a little, but in all, about half of the respondents had heard or read about each system. The actual usage of the systems was naturally lower, being under 20% for each system. For each system, both those who had only heard about the system, and those who had used the system themselves, answered to the questions related to the benefits and usefulness of the systems as well as willingness to have and pay for the system for their next vehicle. For each system, the number of drivers responding to these detailed questions was still high, at least 3000 (at least 60% of all the participants). In all, drivers were quite positive on having the studied systems in their next vehicle. To summarize, more than half of them were willing to have speed alert, emergency braking or eco-driving in their next car. Even 60% of the respondents were willing to have real-time traffic information and tirepressure monitoring system. For start stop-assistance the share was somewhat lower, being 40% of the respondents. If one compares these numbers into the current usage of the systems, which in this study was varying from 5% (emergency braking) up to 19% (eco-driving and start-stop assistance), one can say that there is potential demand for the systems in all the participant countries. In addition, when analysing the willingness to pay for the systems, it can be summarized that those drivers willing to estimate the price they would be willing to pay for a system or not being sure (not replying straight “nothing” when asked about the willingness to pay for) varied between 57% for start-stop assistance up to 77% for emergency braking. Of course, the price the drivers were willing to pay for each system was in most cases only up to 200 Euros. The share of the users who indicated they would be willing to pay varied from 38% in case of start-stop assistant to 56% for emergency braking. In conclusion, this suggests that a moderate share of users is willing to pay for the systems analysed in the study. In general, there were a few differences between drivers’ opinions in different countries. Some of these may be the result of different car fleet (age, make, model) in each country, and some as a result of different road infrastructure. The results will be further analysed with multivariate analysis in later phase to find out the correlations between the background variables and stated responses. (Author/publisher) For more information on this project, see http://www.imobilitychallenge.eu/
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