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Abstract: With the accelerating commercialization of autonomous driving technologies, autonomous ride-hailing services are gradually becoming an important carrier of smart mobility. However, insufficient user trust and unstable adoption intention remain key barriers to their market diffusion. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and trust theory, this study develops an integrated cognition-trust-behavioral intention framework to systematically examine how perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and trust shape users' willingness to adopt autonomous ride-hailing services. Based on 633 valid questionnaires, the study employs partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) for empirical testing. The results show that both perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use significantly and positively affect user trust and usage intention; trust plays a crucial mediating role between cognitive evaluations and adoption intention; and perceived usefulness exerts a stronger effect on trust and behavioral intention than perceived ease of use. The study extends the explanatory boundary of TAM in autonomous driving contexts and, in practical terms, proposes a trust-centered pathway for promoting user adoption.

 

Keywords: autonomous ride-hailing; Technology Acceptance Model; trust; PLS-SEM; user adoption