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. 2019 Apr 26:10:800.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00800. eCollection 2019.

Looking for Age Differences in Self-Driving Vehicles: Examining the Effects of Automation Reliability, Driving Risk, and Physical Impairment on Trust

Ericka Rovira  1 , Anne Collins McLaughlin  2 , Richard Pak  3 , Luke High  1
Affiliations

Looking for Age Differences in Self-Driving Vehicles: Examining the Effects of Automation Reliability, Driving Risk, and Physical Impairment on Trust

Ericka Rovira et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

Purpose: Self-driving cars are an extremely high level of autonomous technology and represent a promising technology that may help older adults safely maintain independence. However, human behavior with automation is complex and not straightforward (Parasuraman and Riley, 1997; Parasuraman, 2000; Rovira et al., 2007; Parasuraman and Wickens, 2008; Parasuraman and Manzey, 2010; Parasuraman et al., 2012). In addition, because no fully self-driving vehicles are yet available to the public, most research has been limited to subjective survey-based assessments that depend on the respondents' limited knowledge based on second-hand reports and do not reflect the complex situational and dispositional factors known to affect trust and technology adoption.

Methods: To address these issues, the current study examined the specific factors that affect younger and older adults' trust in self-driving vehicles.

Results: The results showed that trust in self-driving vehicles depended on multiple interacting variables, such as the age of the respondent, risk during travel, impairment level of the hypothesized driver, and whether the self-driving car was reliable.

Conclusion: The primary contribution of this work is that, contrary to existing opinion surveys which suggest broad distrust in self-driving cars, the ratings of trust in self-driving cars varied with situational characteristics (reliability, driver impairment, risk level). Specifically, individuals reported less trust in the self-driving car when there was a failure with the car technology; and more trust in the technology in a low risk driving situation with an unimpaired driver when the automation was unreliable.

Keywords: automation reliability; autonomous cars; cognitive aging; individual differences; older adults; self-driving vehicles; technology adoption; trust.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
3-way interaction of car reliability, risk, and impairment. Bars represent 95% CI.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Two-way interaction between car reliability and risk level. Bars represent 95% CI.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Two-way interaction between car reliability and driver impairment. Bars represent 95% CI.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Two-way interaction of risk and impairment. Bars represent 95% CI.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Two-way interaction of age group and car reliability. Bars represent 95% CI.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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