Assessing the readiness of Hungarian cities
for autonomous vehicles
Miklós Lukovics, Péter Kovács, Melinda Smahó
Cities, Volume 165, October 2025
Highlights
- Provides a method for assessing urban autonomous vehicle readiness
- Builds on responses from local policymakers and urban experts in 56 cities (91.8 % sample)
- Applies multivariate methods: clustering and multidimensional scaling
- Identifies AV-readiness typology and city clusters
- Reveals limited awareness of AV-related urban development needs
Abstract
An increasing number of studies examine the AV readiness of cities where urban autonomous vehicle street tests have already been performed, leaving a significant gap in understanding the AV-readiness of cities that have not yet undergone such testing. Our research aims to assess the AV-readiness of Hungarian cities without prior urban autonomous vehicle testing. We surveyed 56 cities (91.8 % sample) with public transport and populations over 20,000. The results of the correlation analysis indicate a minimal understanding of the relation between the urban deployment of autonomous vehicles and the need for related urban developments. In the long term, however, there is evidence of the cities’ intention to establish the urban conditions for autonomous vehicles. The larger the settlement and the higher the readiness level of current mobility plans and solutions, the sooner the estimated intervention, although these correlations are weak. The larger the size of the settlement and the more it has a mobility plan or an already existing solution, the shorter the timeframe required by the settlement for municipal interventions. Approximately half of the city planners did not associate AV-readiness with legislation and there are significant differences in planning considerations related to the new mobility paradigm.
Keywords: Cities; City readiness; Autonomous vehicles; AV-readiness; Policy makers; Cluster analysis; Multidimensional scaling
