Investigating Acceptance of Technology Case: The Autonomous truck

Abstract: The autonomous truck is gradually making its way onto our roads, and the elimination of the truck driver implies a substantial social-technical transition for logistics companies. Specifically, transport managers who work closely with the drivers on a daily basis, will potentially see a significant change at work. The implementation of the autonomous trucks in logistical companies could cause frictions because of the transition. The purpose of this study is to examine acceptance of a forthcoming technology in organisational settings. This will be done by inspecting the attitudes transport managers have towards their current social and technical aspect of their work, and the prospective autonomous truck. A qualitative research approach is undertaken to investigate the topic. The chosen case study is transport managers working in Sweden in logistical companies. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews with 13 participants. A thematic analysis approach is used to interpret the gathered data. The low interest in the subject and scattered attitudes of the transport managers points towards a need for more research on the topic. Further studies on acceptance of the technology as we get closer to its reality would give a clearer picture of what frictions to expect and how to deal with the transition.