There has been a growing interest in Autonomous Vehicle (AV) technology worldwide over the last decade. Nevertheless, various studies have noted some potential socio-psychological challenges to AV use and ownership. These challenges can be mitigated by designing AV that accounts for users’ personalities, such as their perceived control and power. The complex relationship between personal control and automation, two concepts that intuitively sound contradictory to each other, is less explored. In this study, two dimensions of personal control, the desire for control and the driver locus of control, were hypothesized to influence the attitude toward AV. The relationships were moderated by power distance, a cultural factor related to one’s sense of control. The hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach via the Analysis of Moment Structures (AMOS) software. As many as 457 respondents from two sample groups, Hungarian and Indonesian drivers were gathered via an online questionnaire and compared. The results reveal that 1) the higher the desire for control, the more negative the attitude toward AV 2) the higher the external driver locus of control, the more positive the attitude toward AV 3) the more positive the attitude toward AV, the higher the intention to use AV and 4) power distance moderates the relationship between the desire for control and the attitude toward AV, such that the negative effect of the desire for control is strengthened in high power distance orientation. This study also provides theoretical contributions and managerial implications, especially to AV designers.

在过去的十年中，全球对自动驾驶汽车（AV）技术的兴趣日益增长。但是，各种研究都指出了对AV使用和所有权的一些潜在的社会心理挑战。通过设计考虑用户个性（例如其感知的控制和功能）的AV，可以缓解这些挑战。人为控制和自动化之间的复杂关系，这两个在直觉上相互矛盾的概念，很少被探讨。在这项研究中，假设个人控制的两个维度，即对控制的渴望和驾驶员的控制源，会影响对AV的态度。通过权力距离来缓和关系，权力距离是一种与人的控制感有关的文化因素。假设通过结构矩模型（SEM）方法通过矩量结构分析（AMOS）软件进行了测试。通过在线问卷收集并比较了来自两个样本组（匈牙利和印度尼西亚驾驶员）的多达457位受访者。结果表明：1）对控制的渴望越高，对AV的态度越消极2）外部驾驶员的控制源越高，对AV的态度就越积极3）对AV的态度越积极，就越高使用AV的意图和4）功率距离缓和了对控制的期望与对AV的态度之间的关系，从而在高功率距离取向中增强了对控制的期望的负面影响。这项研究还提供了理论上的贡献和管理意义，