Blog · Technology acceptance
Would you accept a drone delivering your parcel? Benefits and risks of AI-automated last-mile delivery
Delivery drones promise faster, more sustainable last-mile logistics. But will consumers accept them? With Lars Meyer-Waarden, Julien Cloarec and Vincent Favarin, we studied how French consumers weigh the benefits and risks of AI-automated delivery drones. The study appears in Technological Forecasting and Social Change.
What we did
We extended the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT2) with constructs related to well-being, perceived technology risk, privacy concerns and environmental concerns. A 2×2×2 experiment with 3,212 French participants manipulated physical accidents, cyberattacks and product criticality, and measured how these factors, together with environmental values, shape performance expectancy, social influence, risk perception and adoption intentions.
What we found
- Accidents and cyberattacks raise perceived risks and lower drone adoption.
- Environmental concerns matter. They strengthen the positive effect of performance expectancy and social influence on well-being and, unexpectedly, reduce the negative effect of privacy concerns.
- Product criticality weakens adoption. When the delivered product is critical, the positive influence of well-being on adoption intention becomes weaker.
Consumers evaluate autonomous technologies through both their risks and their ecological promise.
Contribution
By integrating sustainability and perceived-risk theory into UTAUT2, the article advances our understanding of how consumers evaluate new autonomous technologies under uncertainty and ecological awareness.