Designing for Trust: How Human-Machine Interface Can Shape the Future of Urban Air Mobility

Abstract

This study investigates the influence of human-machine interface (HMI) design on passenger trust in autonomous electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles. An immersive simulator-based experiment was conducted with 34 participants, exposing them to four HMI conditions: baseline, movement, hazard detection, and full information condition. As related measures of passenger trust, we collected self-reported measures including trust, perceived safety, perceived reliability, and intention to use. In addition, physiological measures including gaze behavior, electrodermal activity, and heart rate were collected. The results indicated that movement and hazard detection information improved passenger trust, suggesting that HMI design could play a crucial role in enhancing the acceptance of autonomous eVTOLs. In addition, gaze behavior showed a stronger relationship with self-reported trust than other physiological measures. The findings underscore the importance of HMI design in fostering passenger trust, which is critical to the success of urban air mobility.

Keywords:

• Urban air mobility (UAM)
• electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicle
• passenger trust
• human-machine interface design
• physiological measure

Acknowledgements

This research was suported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea(NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education(RS-2023-00249596)

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Young Woo Kim

Young Woo Kim is a post-doctoral researcher at Yonsei University. He received his PhD in Industrial Engineering from Yonsei University, South Korea. His research focused on evaluating and quantifying user experience within future mobility contexts, including autonomous vehicles and urban air mobility.

Yong Gu Ji

Yong Gu Ji is a professor in the Department of Industrial Engineering at Yonsei University, where he directs the Interaction Design Laboratory. He received his PhD in Human Factors/HCI from Purdue University. His research interests include usability/UX in future mobility and autonomous vehicles.