The Influence of Situational Variables Toward Initial Trust Formation on Autonomous System

Autonomous vehicles (AV) are predicted to change our current transportation system, however, how and when they become fully adopted is still an uncertain matter. One essential aspect to consider is how people form trust towards AV. In the context of AV, trust in technology is critical for safety considerations. Although humans are capable of making instinctive assessments of the trustworthiness of other people, this ability does not directly translate to technological systems. The rising complexity of autonomous systems (AS) (e.g., cruise control) requires the operators to calibrate their trust in the system to achieve their safety and performance goals. As such, a detailed understanding of how trust develops, and especially the underlying mental processes, will facilitate the prediction of how trust levels influence behavior mode and decision-making strategies when interacting with AV. To investigate this in the context of AV, we conducted interviews and follow-up surveys to examine users’ current behavior with an analogous system (cruise control) and explored its relationship with the perception of AV trustworthiness. Our findings suggest that external factors play a role in the adoption of cruise control (an analogous system), while internal factors determine non-adoption. Trustworthiness in AV is affected by external factors, users’ trust in others, and their knowledge of advanced vehicle technology.