Shaping trust between users and autonomous cars in situations involving emergency vehicles: A human-centered design approach

Abstract: Technological advances have accelerated the development of autonomous vehicles and fully autonomous cars are now on the horizon. As automation gradually replaces the driver, their role in the car becomes ambiguous. In order to reap the benefits of such a system, the place of man must be understood and taken into account. This essay used Human-centered design as a framework to identify design factors in a user interface that can build trust in autonomous cars. The study was limited to situations involving emergency vehicles approaching from behind. Research through design was used as a tool to find design factors which are presented along with a prototype as a "proof of concept" in the results. Findings were compared with existing studies on trust and human factors to account for a deeper connection and its effect on humans. The study identified several design factors including how different colors can affect people’s perception of the severity of situations. The study also showed that the effect of the system’s transparency on trust correlated to individuals underlying incentives to use automation.