Using a Situational Awareness Display to Improve Rider Trust and Comfort with an AV Taxi

Abstract

There is evidence that a significant portion of the population does not trust automated vehicles (AV). Research on trust in automation suggests that providing insight into how automation functions via a situational awareness (SA) display improves trust. However, it is unclear how much information is needed to build trust. A study was conducted to evaluate what amount of information improves passenger trust with an AV. After a ride in a simulated AV with one of four SA displays with varying amounts of information or no SA display, participants completed questions about trust and comfort. In addition, participants completed a card sorting task to determine what content they desired to see on the SA display. Our conclusions suggests that an SA display engenders trust and comfort. However, such a display should present a low amount of information. A possible explanation is that high information density displays might be more difficult for participants to interpret.

Co-DAS: Development and Evaluation of Co-Driver Assistance System Concepts to Reduce Passenger Discomfort

“…The assistant system only showed a discomfort reduction during long THWs in the Braking scenarios. This means that the positive effect of transparent information indicated by the results of the studies by Chang et al (2019), Yang et al (2018) was only partly found for this system variation. However, in the post inquiry more than half of the participants rated the assistant system as very or extremely helpful in reducing their discomfort.…”

“…It is possible that the displayed braking process of the driver was perceived rather like a warning or a highlighting of criticality in the situation increasing their discomfort. Another explanation could be that the braking information was displayed too late in the situation to have the same positive effect as the more predictive information about the intentions of an automated vehicle like in the study by Chang et al (2019) or Löcken et al (2016). The information displayed by the system was also rated as helpful in fewer situations compared to the other systems.…”

“…In a study by Löcken et al (2016), information about the intentions of an automated vehicle improved the accuracy of the estimates of intentions and future maneuvers of the vehicle. Chang et al (2019) also visualized information about the intended path of the automated vehicle or of other road users. Participants trusted the automated vehicle more when having access to such an HMI.…”

“…For AD HMIs, system transparency is achieved in different ways and its effect is mostly investigated for its positive effect on their trust in the automated vehicle. Chang et al (2019) investigated the influence of different amounts of information on trust in an automated taxi. They visualized information about traffic controls, the intended path of the automated vehicle, or of other road users.…”

Human-Vehicle Interaction to Support Driver's Situation Awareness in Automated Vehicles: A Systematic Review

“…Even if fully-autonomous vehicles (level 5) do not need a driver, the awareness of the environment and the behavior of the car is considered as a confidence factor towards the system (also valid for the lower levels). It is therefore important to maintain the situation awareness in order to increase the trust of drivers towards these vehicles [25].…”