Exploring Factors Affecting People’s Willingness to Use a Voice-Based In-Car Assistant in Electric Cars: An Empirical Study

Abstract

Voice-based digital assistants are growing in popularity and have been acknowledged as a crucial part of in-car interaction. Currently, academic attention is being paid to various voice assistant scenarios. However, sparse literature focuses on the adoption of voice assistants within the in-vehicle context. The objective of this paper is to examine key factors influencing people’s willingness to use voice assistance in electric cars. First, eight general variables were identified based on the literature review, as well as four demographic variables. These factors were then integrated to construct a hypothetical research model. After that, we carried out an empirical study to examine the structural relationships in the model based on the questionnaire survey results (N = 427). The hypothesis testing results indicated that most path relationships among variables were validated. Finally, we discussed the research findings and developed corresponding design strategies to enhance user acceptance towards in-car voice assistants, both from designers’ and car enterprises’ viewpoints. This article offers valuable theoretical and practical implications for the development of such technologies.