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Objective: We investigated passenger’s trust and preferences using subjective, qualitative, and psychophysiological measures while being driven either by human or automation in a field study and a driving simulator experiment. Background: The passenger’s perspective has largely been neglected in autonomous driving research, although the change of roles from an active driver to a passive passenger is incontrovertible. Investigations of passenger’s appraisals on self-driving vehicles often seem convoluted with active manual driving experiences instead of comparisons with being driven by humans. Method: We conducted an exploratory field study using an autonomous research vehicle ( N = 11) and a follow-up experimental driving simulation ( N = 24). Participants were driven on the same course by a human and an autonomous agent sitting on a passenger seat. Skin conductance, trust, and qualitative characteristics of the perceived driving situation were assessed. In addition, the effect of driving style (defensive vs. sporty) was evaluated in the simulator. Results: Both investigations revealed a close relation between subjective trust ratings and skin conductance, with increased trust and by trend reduced arousal for human compared with automation in control. Even though driving behavior was equivalent in the simulator when being driven by human and automation, passengers most preferred and trusted the human-defensive driver. Conclusion: Individual preferences for driving style and human or autonomous vehicle control influence trust and subjective driving characterizations. Application: The findings are applicable in human-automation research, reminding to not neglect subjective attributions and psychophysiological reactions as a result of ascribed control duties in relation to specific execution characteristics.

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