The inappropriate use of automation as a result of trust issues is a major barrier for a broad market penetration of automated vehicles. Studies so far have shown that providing information about the vehicle’s actions and intentions can be used to calibrate trust and promote user acceptance. However, how such feedback could be designed optimally is still an open question. This article presents the results of two user studies. In the first study, we investigated subjective trust and user experience of (N=21) participants driving in a fully automated vehicle, which interacts with other traffic participants in virtual reality. The analysis of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews shows that participants request feedback about the vehicle’s status and intentions and prefer visual feedback over other modalities. Consequently, we conducted a second study to derive concrete requirements for future feedback systems. We showed (N=56) participants various videos of an automated vehicle from the ego perspective and asked them to select elements in the environment they want feedback about so that they would feel safe, trust the vehicle, and understand its actions. The results confirm a correlation between subjective user trust and feedback needs and highlight essential requirements for automatic feedback generation. The results of both experiments provide a scientific basis for designing more adaptive and personalized in-vehicle interfaces for automated driving.

In the face of continuing urbanization and population growth, cities are seeking to implement safer, more efficient and more sustainable transport modes to cope with the increasing strain on urban traffic. So-called "electrical vertical take-off and landing" (eVTOL) aircrafts, in the context of passenger transportation often referred to as "air taxis", offer a potential solution to these challenges. However, next to technological, legal and infrastructural barriers, the acceptance of this radically new technology by potential users and society in general are among the key challenges. A central prerequisite for the successful uptake of UAM services will be the careful consideration of trust, perceived safety and user experience. This study aims to identify the relevant factors influencing individual acceptance of Urban Air Mobility services using a virtual reality (VR) simulation, which allowed participants to experience a flight in an air taxi from a passenger’s perspective.

No abstract

One of the main challenges of investigating consumers’ perceptions and acceptance of emergent technologies is that respondents have not had any experience with them. This posits the question of how such technologies can be effectively presented to consumers both in the context of research and in measures to foster acceptance. Using automated driving as a case study, this paper presents results from a comparative study of three presentation forms (vignette, real-world video, computer-generated VR) of a ride in an automated vehicle in an empirical study with 103 participants. Results from quantitative analyses show that both real-world videos and the VR simulation outperform textual descriptions in terms of visualisation capability and user experience. Unexpectedly, the VR simulation does not perform significantly better at creating mental images of automated driving than a vignette. Recommendations are offered regarding the choice of a suitable presentation form in empirical research in relation to study objectives.

With growing populations in metropolitan areas and increasing individual traffic, new, safe and efficient transport modes are being explored to meet rising social and environmental demands. So-called Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), which are autonomously controlled and capable of vertical take-off and landing, allow for a range of different use cases, including the transport of packages, medical goods, or passengers. Manufacturers such as Airbus, Lilium or Volocopter already have successfully carried out the first test flights with unmanned drones in Germany, underlining their ambitions to launch UAM operations in the near future. However, next to technological, legal and infrastructural barriers, one of the main challenges ahead of market introduction is the acceptance of UAM operations by potential users and the public. Therefore, the goal of this research is to explore public acceptance of various use cases of Urban Air Mobility as well as the factors that influence the individuals’ intention to use UAM services in the future.