All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys

Thomopoulos, Nikolas; Cohen, Scott; Hopkins, Debbie; Siegel, Lauren; Kimber, Simon

doi:10.1080/01441647.2020.1857460

Journal article 954 views 1 download

All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys

Nikolas Thomopoulos, Scott Cohen

, Debbie Hopkins, Lauren Siegel, Simon Kimber

Transport Reviews, Volume: 41, Issue: 4, Pages: 456 - 477

Swansea University Author: Simon Kimber

PDF | Version of Record

© 2020 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.
Download (2.39MB)

Check full text

DOI (Published version): 10.1080/01441647.2020.1857460

Abstract

People travel by car for a wide variety of reasons. A large proportion of household travel is for non-commuting purposes, including social and recreational journeys. The emergence and (potential) diffusion of highly automated vehicles, also known as autonomous vehicles (AVs), could transform the way...

Full description

Published in:	Transport Reviews
ISSN:	0144-1647 1464-5327
Published:	Informa UK Limited 2021
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64145

first_indexed	2023-09-05T10:50:27Z
last_indexed	2026-06-19T05:17:48Z
id	cronfa64145
recordtype	SURis
fullrecord	<?xml version="1.0"?><rfc1807><datestamp>2026-06-18T11:09:02.5773706</datestamp><bib-version>v2</bib-version><id>64145</id><entry>2023-08-28</entry><title>All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys</title><swanseaauthors><author><sid>1c5f10a827b2f2b44a54fb83862e06ed</sid><ORCID>0000-0002-6209-2225</ORCID><firstname>Simon</firstname><surname>Kimber</surname><name>Simon Kimber</name><active>true</active><ethesisStudent>false</ethesisStudent></author></swanseaauthors><date>2023-08-28</date><deptcode>CBAE</deptcode><abstract>People travel by car for a wide variety of reasons. A large proportion of household travel is for non-commuting purposes, including social and recreational journeys. The emergence and (potential) diffusion of highly automated vehicles, also known as autonomous vehicles (AVs), could transform the way (some) people work and travel. Should they become mainstream, AVs could reshape patterns of leisure travel. To date, however, the impacts and implications of AVs beyond commuting trips have received minimal attention from transport scholarship. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of literatures on AVs. It follows PRISMA guidelines and synthesises 63 papers on AV travel focusing on non-commuting journeys, including travel for purposes of leisure, tourism, shopping and visiting friends and relatives. Given the economic importance of the tourism sector and its inherent focus on non-commuting journeys, this analysis is supplemented with a review of the extent to which national tourism strategies of countries leading AV deployment include reference to AVs. The paper reveals an overwhelming focus on commuting journeys in existing AV studies as less than one-fifth of the reviewed academic sources include non-commuting as part of their wider analysis. The review's further key findings are that the interest of publics in AVs for leisure journeys appears to exceed that for commuting, sharing vehicles will be less likely when AVs are used for leisure and there is an absence of recognition in the literature that certain non-commuting journeys will require a lower SAE level of automation. Surprisingly, analysis of the national tourism strategies of countries most prepared to meet the challenges of AVs shows that just three countries make specific reference to AVs within their national tourism strategies. The paper contributes to setting future AV policy agendas by concluding that two gaps must be narrowed: one, the distance between how academic studies predominantly conceive of AV use (commuting) and articulated public interest in AVs for non-commuting journeys; and two, the lack of readiness in certain national tourism strategies to accommodate AVs. As non-commuting journeys are likely to represent some of the earliest trip purposes for which AVs could be adopted, the paper points to the potential barriers to AV uptake by remaining focused on a limited set of trip purposes.</abstract><type>Journal Article</type><journal>Transport Reviews</journal><volume>41</volume><journalNumber>4</journalNumber><paginationStart>456</paginationStart><paginationEnd>477</paginationEnd><publisher>Informa UK Limited</publisher><placeOfPublication/><isbnPrint/><isbnElectronic/><issnPrint>0144-1647</issnPrint><issnElectronic>1464-5327</issnElectronic><keywords/><publishedDay>4</publishedDay><publishedMonth>7</publishedMonth><publishedYear>2021</publishedYear><publishedDate>2021-07-04</publishedDate><doi>10.1080/01441647.2020.1857460</doi><url/><notes/><college>COLLEGE NANME</college><department>Management School</department><CollegeCode>COLLEGE CODE</CollegeCode><DepartmentCode>CBAE</DepartmentCode><institution>Swansea University</institution><apcterm/><funders/><projectreference/><lastEdited>2026-06-18T11:09:02.5773706</lastEdited><Created>2023-08-28T11:15:57.3578057</Created><path><level id="1">Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences</level><level id="2">School of Management - Business Management</level></path><authors><author><firstname>Nikolas</firstname><surname>Thomopoulos</surname><order>1</order></author><author><firstname>Scott</firstname><surname>Cohen</surname><orcid>0000-0003-1260-8577</orcid><order>2</order></author><author><firstname>Debbie</firstname><surname>Hopkins</surname><order>3</order></author><author><firstname>Lauren</firstname><surname>Siegel</surname><order>4</order></author><author><firstname>Simon</firstname><surname>Kimber</surname><orcid>0000-0002-6209-2225</orcid><order>5</order></author></authors><documents><document><filename>64145__36991__fa57467c1fcd49d1ae79381155f4341c.pdf</filename><originalFilename>64145.VoR.pdf</originalFilename><uploaded>2026-06-18T11:06:57.1280225</uploaded><type>Output</type><contentLength>2502834</contentLength><contentType>application/pdf</contentType><version>Version of Record</version><cronfaStatus>true</cronfaStatus><documentNotes>© 2020 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.</documentNotes><copyrightCorrect>true</copyrightCorrect><language>eng</language><licence>http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</licence></document></documents><OutputDurs/></rfc1807>
spelling	2026-06-18T11:09:02.5773706 v2 64145 2023-08-28 All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys 1c5f10a827b2f2b44a54fb83862e06ed 0000-0002-6209-2225 Simon Kimber Simon Kimber true false 2023-08-28 CBAE People travel by car for a wide variety of reasons. A large proportion of household travel is for non-commuting purposes, including social and recreational journeys. The emergence and (potential) diffusion of highly automated vehicles, also known as autonomous vehicles (AVs), could transform the way (some) people work and travel. Should they become mainstream, AVs could reshape patterns of leisure travel. To date, however, the impacts and implications of AVs beyond commuting trips have received minimal attention from transport scholarship. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of literatures on AVs. It follows PRISMA guidelines and synthesises 63 papers on AV travel focusing on non-commuting journeys, including travel for purposes of leisure, tourism, shopping and visiting friends and relatives. Given the economic importance of the tourism sector and its inherent focus on non-commuting journeys, this analysis is supplemented with a review of the extent to which national tourism strategies of countries leading AV deployment include reference to AVs. The paper reveals an overwhelming focus on commuting journeys in existing AV studies as less than one-fifth of the reviewed academic sources include non-commuting as part of their wider analysis. The review's further key findings are that the interest of publics in AVs for leisure journeys appears to exceed that for commuting, sharing vehicles will be less likely when AVs are used for leisure and there is an absence of recognition in the literature that certain non-commuting journeys will require a lower SAE level of automation. Surprisingly, analysis of the national tourism strategies of countries most prepared to meet the challenges of AVs shows that just three countries make specific reference to AVs within their national tourism strategies. The paper contributes to setting future AV policy agendas by concluding that two gaps must be narrowed: one, the distance between how academic studies predominantly conceive of AV use (commuting) and articulated public interest in AVs for non-commuting journeys; and two, the lack of readiness in certain national tourism strategies to accommodate AVs. As non-commuting journeys are likely to represent some of the earliest trip purposes for which AVs could be adopted, the paper points to the potential barriers to AV uptake by remaining focused on a limited set of trip purposes. Journal Article Transport Reviews 41 4 456 477 Informa UK Limited 0144-1647 1464-5327 4 7 2021 2021-07-04 10.1080/01441647.2020.1857460 COLLEGE NANME Management School COLLEGE CODE CBAE Swansea University 2026-06-18T11:09:02.5773706 2023-08-28T11:15:57.3578057 Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences School of Management - Business Management Nikolas Thomopoulos 1 Scott Cohen 0000-0003-1260-8577 2 Debbie Hopkins 3 Lauren Siegel 4 Simon Kimber 0000-0002-6209-2225 5 64145__36991__fa57467c1fcd49d1ae79381155f4341c.pdf 64145.VoR.pdf 2026-06-18T11:06:57.1280225 Output 2502834 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2020 The Author(s). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys
spellingShingle	All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys Simon Kimber
title_short	All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys
title_full	All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys
title_fullStr	All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys
title_full_unstemmed	All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys
title_sort	All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys
author_id_str_mv	1c5f10a827b2f2b44a54fb83862e06ed
author_id_fullname_str_mv	1c5f10a827b2f2b44a54fb83862e06ed_***_Simon Kimber
author	Simon Kimber
author2	Nikolas Thomopoulos Scott Cohen Debbie Hopkins Lauren Siegel Simon Kimber
format	Journal article
container_title	Transport Reviews
container_volume	41
container_issue	4
container_start_page	456
publishDate	2021
institution	Swansea University
issn	0144-1647 1464-5327
doi_str_mv	10.1080/01441647.2020.1857460
publisher	Informa UK Limited
college_str	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id	facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_top_title	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id	facultyofhumanitiesandsocialsciences
hierarchy_parent_title	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
department_str	School of Management - Business Management{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Management - Business Management
document_store_str	1
active_str	0
description	People travel by car for a wide variety of reasons. A large proportion of household travel is for non-commuting purposes, including social and recreational journeys. The emergence and (potential) diffusion of highly automated vehicles, also known as autonomous vehicles (AVs), could transform the way (some) people work and travel. Should they become mainstream, AVs could reshape patterns of leisure travel. To date, however, the impacts and implications of AVs beyond commuting trips have received minimal attention from transport scholarship. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of literatures on AVs. It follows PRISMA guidelines and synthesises 63 papers on AV travel focusing on non-commuting journeys, including travel for purposes of leisure, tourism, shopping and visiting friends and relatives. Given the economic importance of the tourism sector and its inherent focus on non-commuting journeys, this analysis is supplemented with a review of the extent to which national tourism strategies of countries leading AV deployment include reference to AVs. The paper reveals an overwhelming focus on commuting journeys in existing AV studies as less than one-fifth of the reviewed academic sources include non-commuting as part of their wider analysis. The review's further key findings are that the interest of publics in AVs for leisure journeys appears to exceed that for commuting, sharing vehicles will be less likely when AVs are used for leisure and there is an absence of recognition in the literature that certain non-commuting journeys will require a lower SAE level of automation. Surprisingly, analysis of the national tourism strategies of countries most prepared to meet the challenges of AVs shows that just three countries make specific reference to AVs within their national tourism strategies. The paper contributes to setting future AV policy agendas by concluding that two gaps must be narrowed: one, the distance between how academic studies predominantly conceive of AV use (commuting) and articulated public interest in AVs for non-commuting journeys; and two, the lack of readiness in certain national tourism strategies to accommodate AVs. As non-commuting journeys are likely to represent some of the earliest trip purposes for which AVs could be adopted, the paper points to the potential barriers to AV uptake by remaining focused on a limited set of trip purposes.
published_date	2021-07-04T05:13:10Z
_version_	1868578360367513600
score	11.109323

All work and no play? Autonomous vehicles and non-commuting journeys

Similar Items