Overlooked context? How culture, geography, and policy are treated in automated vehicle literature

Innovation races often distort rational decision-making. For example, is the robotaxi service model truly suitable for the European context, where taxis account for less than 1% of trips while public transport exceeds 20%? In other words, is the “Waymo model” universally applicable?

In our new book chapter in Advances in Transport Policy and Planning (edited by Jan Anne Annema), co-authored with Andrea Lucia Hauslbauer and Chiara Vitrano, we examine the extent to which academic AV research accounts for contextual diversity, defined as the geographic, cultural, and policy factors that shape AV service deployment outcomes.

Based on a systematic review of 26 influential peer-reviewed articles, we analyse both the empirical presence and the analytical role of these context factors. Our findings show that while geography and policy are frequently acknowledged, they are often treated as background conditions rather than as active analytical lenses. Culture is significantly underrepresented and rarely measured or theorised. Only a few studies consider multiple context dimensions, and none examine how geography, culture, and policy interact.

This selective engagement reflects a field still oriented toward technical feasibility and individual-level behaviour, with broader socio-contextual considerations lagging behind.

We argue that a deeper and more integrated treatment of context is essential for assessing the alignment between AV service models, population characteristics, and the environments into which they are introduced.

This work is part of the Diversify-CCAM project.

Full chapter available here