Explanations and Expectations: Trust Building in AVs

Status: Complete

Lead Researcher(s)

Lionel Robert
Associate Professor of Information, School of Information

Dawn Tilbury
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering

Anuj Pradhan
Former Assistant Research Scientist, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute

Xi (Jessie) Yang
Assistant Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering, College of Engineering and Assistant Professor of Information, School of Information

Project Team

Project Abstract

This project seeks to understand the set of expectations a driver has for an autonomous vehicle (AV), to develop a set of explanations AVs should provide to promote trust, and to understand how content, timing, and delivery impact the effectiveness of explanations. The research will match up explanations and their characteristics (i.e., content, length, timing, and delivery) with the appropriate expectation violation. We will conduct two user studies that will manipulate the content, timing, and mode of explanations. The user studies with have 30 participants, each interacting with the U-M Transportation Research Institute simulator.

Project Outcome

Provide recommendations to AV manufacturers on what, when, and how the AV should respond to the driver to promote trust. Participants will engage a preprogramed driving course with unique driving scenarios and crafted explanations to match specific driving scenarios.


BUDGET YEAR: 2017-01-01
IMPACT: SAFETY
RESEARCH CATEGORY: HUMAN FACTORS