Enhancing trust in automated driving: A human centered approach

Abstract

The automotive industry is aiming for attaining an advanced level of automation by which a vehicle can travel from one place to another without engaging the human driver in any situation during the drive. For attaining this level of automation there are few more levels of automation to be crossed with the help of advanced technologies. As the Society of Automotive Engineers Level 2 Automated Vehicles can be seen on our roads, the next step is to attain Level 3 Automated Driving. Several studies have shown that peoples’ trust in Automated Driving is one of the important topics that should be considered for the acceptance of Automated Vehicles in public and for improving road safety. The purpose of this study is to enhance driver's trust in Automated Driving with the help of a newly developed Human Machine Interface that monitors nearby Vulnerable Road Users around the Level 3 Automated Vehicle when it was driven through an urban road and then informs the driver to co-monitor the Automated Driving. This study was conducted in a moving base driving simulator with thirty-four participants. They were divided into two groups accordingly whether they have Level 2 driving experience or not. Each participant drove the Level 3 Automated Vehicle through four different driving conditions, where there is an unexpected pedestrian crossing, in a simulated environment. In each driving condition, they were provided with different automated driving features. Learned trust, dispositional trust, and situational trust were measured. The results show that the group of people who had Level 2 driving experience (learned trust) exhibited higher situational trust when provided with the co-monitoring Human Machine Interface and Forward Collision Warning, also Level 2 experienced drivers performed better in terms of safety. Therefore, it indicates that for achieving a higher level of trust in Automated Driving and improving road safety, a driver should not be inexperienced to previous levels of automated driving when he/she select a Level 3 Automated Vehicle to commute. Furthermore, a Human-Machine Interface which enhances driver's situational trust is highly suggested for a Level 3 Automated Driving.