You’ll Never Ride Alone: Insights into Women’s Security Needs in Shared Automated Vehicles

Understanding Operator Influence in Automated Urban Shuttle Buses and Recommendations for Future Development

“…Prior work found a general willingness to use shared automated vehicles (SAVs), particularly for their environmental advantages [36]. Still, studies also show that security issues could prevent people from using SAVs [37]. As a matter of security, the absence of a human driver is indispensable [25,36,38,39] as they are seen as "guardians" [40].…”

“…This might keep passengers away from using mobility systems without a human on board. In this context, Biermann et al confirm [41] that there seems to be an increased need for security, and suggestions for design solutions accounting for the absence of a human driver on board are already underway [37]. When aiming for SAE level 5 automated shuttle buses, the system will have to substitute for the driver in terms of operation and security aspects.…”

“…To answer these questions, we followed a mixed-method approach and combined in-depth interviews with operators employed in current pilot projects in Kelheim and Kronach, online questionnaires, observations, and interviews with passengers using the shuttle buses in these projects and with people that never used such buses. Through this combination of methods and participants, we aimed to gain holistic insights into the operator's role from several perspectives and to evaluate concepts proposed by Schuß et al as a substitute for the driver on board [37]. In their co-creation sessions, they derived the idea of virtual operators or "digital companions" that would appear on the screen or in the vehicle's interior as a substitute for a driver or operator.…”

“…Our resulting four concepts are ((1) a human tele-assistant from the service provider, (2) a hologram, (3) a robot, and (4) a chat (bot) communicating with passengers through the app or a screen integrated into the seats, see Figure 1), and have been evaluated during our study. As we aimed to take the concept of the digital companion [37] to a different level, we also explored what roles, characteristics, and personalities a digital companion should represent from a user perspective and investigated them in an online questionnaire. Thereby, we were guided by the design space that Bouquet et al [47] propose for assistants in video games, which emphasizes the importance of their behavior, personality, and relation to the player.…”

“…Our interviewees stated that the hologram, as it is located inside the vehicle, radiates a certain presence that is essential for a digital companion. We hypothesize that a more embodied concept than a voice-based assistant, as in [37], is more appropriate for substituting a human on board. Nevertheless, the robot concept was mainly rejected because it was in the way or took too much space.…”