How People Perceive and Expect Safety in Autonomous Vehicles: An Empirical Study for Risk Sensitivity and Risk-related Feelings

ABSTRACT

Although autonomous vehicles (AVs) have been proved to have potential to reduce traffic accidents, people often hold skepticism toward the safety of AVs. The critical question is that what drives people to perceive and expect the safety of AVs. In this paper, a structural model is constructed, comprising risk sensitivity, risk-related feelings, perceived and expected safety. A survey of 185 respondents was conducted, and the results were analyzed by using PLS-SEM. Our study provided a deeper understanding of mental reasons for safety judgments in AVs by exploring how risk sensitivity and feelings explain safety judgment in AVs and establish the connections between them. It is found that perceived safety was influenced by feelings of worry more than dread, but there was no significant correlation between perceived safety and expected safety. New possible research ideas of AV’s safety study are discussed in the paper.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant 61772186, the National Key Technologies R&D Program of China Grant 2015BAH22F01, and Research Project of State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body.

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

In accordance with Taylor & Francis policy and my ethical obligation as a researcher, I am reporting that all authors have no conflicts of interest in this work. We declare that we do not have any commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the work submitted.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hao Tan

Hao Tan is a professor of the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body in China. He received his PhD from Hunan University in China. His research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors and Experience Design.

Cong Chen

Cong Chen is pursuing a master degree in School of Design, Hunan University. Her research interests include Human-Computer Interaction and User Experience Design.

Yuyue Hao

Yuyue Hao is a PhD candidate of design in School of Design, Hunan University. His research interests include Human-Computer Interaction, Human factors/Ergonomics and Design Strategy.