The intelligent driving characteristics of autonomous vehicles (AVs) have caused widespread concern in society. In order to analyze the possible social effects of autonomous vehicles after application, this paper constructs the social effect analysis framework of autonomous vehicles through four aspects: economic development, energy consumption, social equity and public health. Collecting and analyzing related data through the Q method, the following three social effects (view points) of autonomous vehicles are obtained. First, the advantages of AVs in terms of transportation will help guide people to choose and live in suburbs that are farther away from the city, but this will not cause urbanization in the suburbs; Second, the benefits that AVs bring to life will not be evenly distributed among social groups in the short term. But in the long run, with the advancement of technology and the reduction of the cost of AVs, most people in the society can enjoy the convenience that AVs bring to life; Third, the advantages of AVs in transportation and environmental protection will help to create a good urban business environment to a certain extent and strengthen the radiant role of urban centers. At the end of the paper, we summarized the survey respondents' views on the social effects of AVs and made some suggestions for the development of future AVs.

Qian Zhou. Analysis of Social Effects of Autonomous Vehicles. Academic Journal of Engineering and Technology Science (2020) Vol. 3 Issue 1: 65-74. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJETS.2020.030109.

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