Abstract
Background: Recent technological advancements in automated vehicles are becoming more popular, especially in developed and emerging markets. These changes are bringing new challenges for the drivers, planners, engineers, and manufacturers. Due to several crash incidents that occurred over the past years involving driverless vehicles, safety concerns of potential users have been raised. One key aspect is to design the system so that the user experience can be improved, especially in terms of safety and reliability. User's viewpoint can also be used to collect feedback about the system based on their experience and interaction with the technology. Public opinion surveys have been frequently used to capture such feedback. In this context, this recently completed survey study investigates the opinion, trust, and expectations of potential users in Belgium, particularly on driverless vehicles' safety performance.
Methods: Various safety critical driving scenarios were designed to obtain a more detailed understanding of the public's safety perceptions. Participants were asked to provide their assessment on automated driving systems' safety performance under those scenarios in a stated preference survey.
Results: Total 360 people participated in the survey. Those who provided demographic information included 64.1% male and 34.8% female, out of which almost 70% had bachelor’s level education or above. Several demographics such as age, education level, income level, owning a car, driving experience, frequency of driving, and previous experience with automated functions, were found to have a significant association with the public's interest and trust in the safety performance of the system. Overall, most of the respondents were optimistic regarding the system's reliability for making efficient and safe decisions (e.g., avoiding a potential collision) under various critical traffic scenarios. Driving on motorways was the most trusted scenario (90% agreement) for automated vehicle operation. Situations where respondents indicated concern or lesser trust in the technology included the presence of a large number of vulnerable road users (41%), driving in poor visibility due to weather conditions (41.6%), and driving through work zones (46%).
Conclusions: The results offer unique challenges to designers, technology developers, planners, and manufacturers about developing such systems and strategies that would lead to the safe and successful adaptation of future automated vehicles. The willingness to pay for getting an automated vehicle was also correlated with trust in the system's safety performance. The study's findings suggest further exploration of users' understanding, trust, and safety expectations of the driverless vehicle technology for successful deployment and adaptation.
Methods: Various safety critical driving scenarios were designed to obtain a more detailed understanding of the public's safety perceptions. Participants were asked to provide their assessment on automated driving systems' safety performance under those scenarios in a stated preference survey.
Results: Total 360 people participated in the survey. Those who provided demographic information included 64.1% male and 34.8% female, out of which almost 70% had bachelor’s level education or above. Several demographics such as age, education level, income level, owning a car, driving experience, frequency of driving, and previous experience with automated functions, were found to have a significant association with the public's interest and trust in the safety performance of the system. Overall, most of the respondents were optimistic regarding the system's reliability for making efficient and safe decisions (e.g., avoiding a potential collision) under various critical traffic scenarios. Driving on motorways was the most trusted scenario (90% agreement) for automated vehicle operation. Situations where respondents indicated concern or lesser trust in the technology included the presence of a large number of vulnerable road users (41%), driving in poor visibility due to weather conditions (41.6%), and driving through work zones (46%).
Conclusions: The results offer unique challenges to designers, technology developers, planners, and manufacturers about developing such systems and strategies that would lead to the safe and successful adaptation of future automated vehicles. The willingness to pay for getting an automated vehicle was also correlated with trust in the system's safety performance. The study's findings suggest further exploration of users' understanding, trust, and safety expectations of the driverless vehicle technology for successful deployment and adaptation.
| Original language | English |
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| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |