Since the emergence of autonomous vehicles, improving their acceptance among the general public has been a hot topic of concern in academia and industry. The work aims to provide a comprehensive review of the individual characteristics that affect the acceptance of autonomous vehicles, so as to provide references for personalized design practices to enhance user acceptance. A review of research on the acceptance of autonomous vehicles conducted in the past decade was carried out. The study systematically summarized the effects of three categories of user factors:social demography characteristics, experience level, and psychological traits on the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. Social demography characteristics factors that affected the acceptance of autonomous vehicles mainly included gender, age, geographical location, education, income, and physical condition. User driving experience and prior knowledge also impacted the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. Psychological traits were the core factors that explained differences in user acceptance, including the dimensions of the big five personality traits, self-perception, personal control, and anxiety characteristics. Personalized design focusing on the above-mentioned user characteristics, including inclusive design, entertainment interaction components, information exchange methods, autonomous driving styles, and appearance, can contribute to improving user acceptance. Personalized design practices based on user characteristics will be an important approach to enhancing the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. In the future, further research is needed to explore the interactive mechanisms and weight analysis of multidimensional user factors, and empirical studies should be conducted to clarify the effects of different personalized designs, thus promoting the popularization of autonomous vehicles.