This is not me! Technology-identity concerns in consumers’ acceptance of autonomous vehicle technology

The relationship between drivers and their cars is increasingly personal, where the cars become an extension of the drivers’ self-identity. However, the penetration of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology threatens consumers’ self-identity as expressed by the act of driving. This study thus aims to examine the impacts of technology-identity concerns on consumers’ acceptance of AV technology. Theories of identity threat, identity control and innovation diffusion are synthesised to build the conceptual framework. Face-to-face interview data were collected from 353 consumers (all with a driving license) in Singapore. The results show that consumers’ technology anxiety and self-identity expressiveness act as two sources of resistance that cause consumers’ intentional avoidance of the AV technology. The avoidance is further characterised by consumers’ disengagement from the ‘observe’ and ‘try’ stages of technology penetration, which ultimately dissuades consumers’ acceptance of AV technology. The impacts of socio-demographics are also explored. Our findings contribute to multiple streams of literature and create practical implications to AV manufacturers and retailers.     

To share or not to share: A theoretically guided investigation of factors predicting intentions to use fully automated shared passenger shuttles

This study applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to assess individuals’ intentions to use fully automated shared passenger shuttles when they become publicly available. In addition, perceived trust was assessed to examine the extent to which this variable could account for additional variance in intentions above the TPB constructs of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control (PBC). Further, and also guided by the TPB, the study explored the differences in behavioural, normative, and control beliefs between individuals who reported high intentions to use automated passenger shuttles in the future (high intenders) and individuals who reported low intentions to use fully automated shared passenger shuttles in the future (low intenders). Participants (N = 438; 64% female) aged between 17 and 84 years (Mage = 35.42 years) were asked to complete an online questionnaire which took approximately 15 min. The findings revealed that attitudes, subjective norms, and PBC were significant positive predictors of intentions to use fully automated shared passenger shuttles when they become publicly available. When perceived trust was added to the hierarchical regression, this variable was shown to account for additional significant variance in intentions above the TPB constructs and was shown to be a significant positive predictor of intentions. Further, the results revealed significant differences in beliefs held by high and low intenders. Specifically, high intenders held significantly more positive beliefs towards fully automated shared passenger shuttles than low intenders. In turn, low intenders held significantly more negative beliefs towards these vehicles than high intenders. Overall, these findings provide support for the utility of the TPB in examining individuals’ intentions to use fully automated shared passenger shuttles when they become publicly available.     

Psychophysiological responses to cooperation: The role of outcome and gender

Instances of sustained cooperative behaviour in humans can be considered as an adaptive strategy that enhances the probability of reaching a goal. This study investigates psychophysiological responses to cooperation in healthy subjects, while considering outcome and gender as potential moderators of these responses. Salivary cortisol levels (Csal), heart rate (HR), skin conductance level (SCL), nonspecific skin conductance responses (NSRs), and mood states were measured at different points before, during and after a Lego house‐building task in undergraduate men (n = 22) and women (n = 20). Once the task was finished, the experimenter informed the participants about the outcome obtained (positive or negative). Cooperation produces an increase in HR, SCL, and NSR responses. When the outcome is positive it produces a gradual diminution in Csal levels, but when the outcome is negative there is a significant increase in Csal levels after the task followed by a progressive decrease. Men with positive outcomes showed a lower area under curve (AUC) in Csal than women with a negative outcome. Men had more NSR responses in all periods other than the rest period. Several mood states are differently affected by the combined effect of outcome and gender. Our laboratory results can be generalized to other situations in which negotiation, mediation, and cooperative strategies are relevant for taking decisions and/or solving problems.     

What Would It Take to Get You into an Electric Car? Consumer Perceptions and Decision Making about Electric Vehicles

Americans buy millions of vehicles every year, but research on how those decisions are made, including personality and individual difference factors, has rarely taken full advantage of psychological insights. This is an increasingly important topic because, for instance, decisions to buy electric vehicles (EVs) rather than gasoline-powered vehicles have environmental and geopolitical consequences. A series of studies reveal the very different perceptions of EVs and gas vehicles. Although vehicle choices at the aggregate level were strongly correlated with economic considerations, individual consumer choices were correlated with delay discounting rates in Study 1 but not Study 2. These studies also did not find significant correlations between EV purchase decisions and a number of other individual difference traits often thought to be factors in such decisions (i.e., social value orientation, political attitudes, environmental attitudes, preference for novel products, or an array of core social values). Regression models indicate that factors which did predict vehicle choices concerns were about the performance and range of EVs, EV prevalence in general, and beliefs about what statements different vehicle types made about their owners and the owners’ values. More attention to the vehicle-associated values and immediate performance/use issues can help to promote EV purchase decisions and subsequent improvements in environmental and political stability.     

On-Road vehicle study of the experience of automated driving

Prior studies of automated driving have focused on drivers’ evaluations of advanced driving assistance systems and their knowledge of the technology. An on-road experiment with novice drivers who had never used automated systems was conducted to examine the effects of the automation on the driving experience. Participants drove a Tesla Model 3 sedan with level 2 automation engaged or not engaged on a 4-lane interstate freeway. They reported that driving was more enjoyable and less stressful during automated driving than manual driving. They also indicated that they were less anxious and nervous, and able to relax more with the automation. Their intentions to use and purchase automated systems in the future were correlated with the favorableness of their automated driving experiences. The positive experiences of the first-time users suggest that consumers may not need a great deal of persuading to develop an appreciation for partially automated vehicles.     

Humanizing autonomous vehicle driving: Understanding,modeling and impact assessment

The advent of autonomous vehicles brings major changes in the transportation systems influencing the infrastructure design, the network performance, as well as driving functions and habits. The penetration rate of this new technology highly depends on the acceptance of the automated driving services and functions, as well as on their impacts on various traffic, user oriented and environmental aspects. This research aims to present a methodological framework aiming to facilitate the modelling of the behaviour of new AV driving systems and their impacts on traffic, safety and environment. This framework introduces a stepwise approach, which will be leveraged by stakeholders in order to evaluate the new technology and its components at the design or implementation phase in order to increase acceptance and favor the adoption of the new technology. The proposed framework consists of four sequential steps: i. conceptual design, ii. data collection, processing and mining, iii. modelling and iv. autonomous vehicles impact assessment. The connection between these steps is illustrated and various Key Performance Indicators are specified for each impact area. The paper ends with highlighting some conceptual and modeling challenges that may critically affect the study of acceptance of autonomous vehicles in future mobility scenarios.     

The effects of adaptive cruise control (ACC) headway time on young-experienced drivers' overtaking tendency in a driving simulator

The preference to maintain a certain desired speed is perhaps the most prevalent explanation for why a driver of a manually driven car decides to overtake a lead vehicle. Still, the motivation for overtaking is also affected by other factors such as aggressiveness, competitiveness, or sensation-seeking caused by following another vehicle. Whether such motivational factors for overtaking play a role in partially automated driving is yet to be determined. This study had three goals: (i) to investigate whether and how a driver's tendency to overtake a lead vehicle changes when driving a vehicle equipped with an adaptive cruise control (ACC) system. (ii) To study how such tendencies change when the headway time configuration of the ACC system varies. (iii) To examine how the manipulation of the speed and speed variance of the lead vehicle affect drivers' tendencies to overtake a lead vehicle. We conducted two different experiments, where the second experiment followed the first experiment's results. In each experiment, participants drove three 10–12 min simulated drives under light traffic conditions in a driving simulator under manual and level one (L1) automation driving conditions. The automation condition included an ACC with two headway time configurations. In the first experiment, it was 1 sec and 3 secs, and in the second, it was 1 sec and 2 secs. Each drive included six passing opportunities representing three different speeds of the lead vehicle (−3 km/h, +3 km/h, +6 km/h relative to the participant), with or without speed variance. Results show that drivers tended to overtake a lead vehicle more often in manual mode than in automated driving modes. In the first experiment, ACC with a headway time of 1 sec led to more overtaking events than ACC with 3 secs headway time. In addition, the relative speed of the lead vehicle and its speed variability affected overtaking tendencies. In the second experiment, the relative speed of the lead vehicle and its speed variability affected overtaking tendencies only when interacting with each other and with driving configuration. When the speed of the lead vehicle was +3 km/h and included variability, more overtaking events occurred in manual mode than both automation modes. This work has shown that driving with ACC might help reduce overtaking frequencies and more considerable when the headway time is set to 3 secs.     

A hybrid POMDP-BDI agent architecture with online stochastic planning and plan caching

This article presents an agent architecture for controlling an autonomous agent in stochastic, noisy environments. The architecture combines the partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) model with the belief-desire-intention (BDI) framework. The Hybrid POMDP-BDI agent architecture takes the best features from the two approaches, that is, the online generation of reward-maximizing courses of action from POMDP theory, and sophisticated multiple goal management from BDI theory. We introduce the advances made since the introduction of the basic architecture, including (i) the ability to pursue and manage multiple goals simultaneously and (ii) a plan library for storing pre-written plans and for storing recently generated plans for future reuse. A version of the architecture is implemented and is evaluated in a simulated environment. The results of the experiments show that the improved hybrid architecture outperforms the standard POMDP architecture and the previous basic hybrid architecture for both processing speed and effectiveness of the agent in reaching its goals.     

LARES: An AI-based teleassistance system for emergency home monitoring

The latest progresses in medicine are helping people live longer and better. An ageing population is a sign of a developed society with an advanced health care system. Improved life expectancy should be welcomed as a major achievement, but it should not cause a financial or social burden. In this scenario, it is critical to support older and handicap adults to continue living independently and retaining their current lifestyle. New technological advances in Wireless Sensors Networks (WSN) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can facilitate this task.In this direction we present lares, an AI-based system that integrates a (i) WSN for receiving information of the environment and the dependent person, (ii) an autonomous robot able to take decisions based on the received information, and (iii) a Web-based system to provide telecare assistance. lares has been tried in two dependent elderly home environments during several weeks, and the experiments show that is able to detect anomalies and generate alarms in abnormal situations.     

A mixed-methods examination of autonomous sensory meridian response: Comparison to frisson

Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) is a pleasurable, head-oriented tingling sensation, typically induced by exposure to audiovisual triggers, producing feelings of relaxation and euphoria. This article explores the induction of ASMR experiences in a laboratory setting amongst non-specialised participants, as well as the relationship between ASMR and frisson, or ‘musical chills’. In previous work, the ASMR-15 was found to be a reliable measure of ASMR propensity, however, the predictive validity of the measure has yet to be determined. The aim of this study was to assess whether ASMR-15 scores predict greater ASMR induction in an experimental setting. To address this, N = 100 undergraduate psychology students completed the ASMR-15 and a measure of frisson, before viewing ASMR stimuli under controlled conditions. Mixed-methods analyses indicated the successful induction of ASMR amongst some participants, convergence between ASMR-15 scores and video ratings, as well as divergence between ASMR and frisson scores.