Designing for Appropriate Trust in Automated Vehicles

Automated vehicles (AVs) have become a popular area of research due to, among others, claims of increased traffic safety and user comfort. However, before a user can reap the benefits, they must first trust the AV. Trust in AVs has gained a greater interest in recent years due to being a prerequisite for user acceptance, adoption as well as important for good user experience. However, it is not about creating trust in AVs, as much as creating an appropriate level of trust in relation to the actual performance of the AV. However, little research has presented a systematic and holistic approach that may assist developers in the design process to understand what to primarily focus on and how, when developing AVs that assist users to generate an appropriate level of trust.\ua0This thesis presents two mixed-method studies (Study I and II). The first study considers what factors affect users trust in the AV and is primarily based on a literature review as well as a complementary user study. The second study, a user study, is built upon Study I and uses a Wizard of Oz (WOz) approach with the purpose to understand how the behaviour of an AV affects users trust in a simulated but realistic context, including seven day-to-day traffic situations.The results show that trust is primarily affected by information from and about the AV. Furthermore, results also show that trust in AVs have primarily four different phases, before the user’s first physical interaction with the AV (i), during usage and whilst learning how the AV performs (ii), after the user has learned how the AV performs in a specific context (iii) and after the user has learned how the AV performs in a specific context but that context changes (iv). It was also found that driving behaviour affects the user’s trust in the AV during usage and whilst learning how the AV performs. This was primarily due to how well the driving behaviour communicated intentions for the users’ to be able to predict upcoming AV actions. The users’ were also affected by the perceived benevolence of the AV, that is how respectful the driving behaviour was interpreted by the user. Finally, the results also showed that the user’s trust in the AV also is affected by aspects relating to different traffic situations such as perceived task difficulty, perceived risk for oneself (and others) and how well the AV conformed to the user’s expectations. Thus, it is not only how the AV performs but rather how the AV performs in relation to different traffic situations. Finally, since design research not only considers how things are, but also how things ought to be, a tentative explanatory and prescriptive model was developed based on the results presented above. The model of trust information exchange and gestalt explains how information affecting user trust, travels from a trust information sender to a trust information receiver and highlights the important aspects for developers to consider designing for appropriate trust in AVs, such as the design space and related variables. The design variables are a) the message (the type and amount of information), b) the artefact (the AV, including communication channels and properties) and c) the information gestalt, which is based on the combination of signals communicated from the properties (and communication channels). In this case, the gestalt is what the user ultimately perceives; the combined result of all signals. Therefore, developers need to consider not only how individual signals are perceived and interpreted, but also how different signals are perceived and interpreted together, as a whole, an information gestalt

An investigation into generation Z’s mindsets of entertainment in an autonomous vehicle

Alongside the development of digital life, certain concepts gain new dimensions among new generations. When entertainment is the subject, it creates emergent desires, behaviours and mindsets in the social and consumer cultures. However, existing perspectives around in-car entertainment do not fully embrace the digitally dynamic environment in which Generation Z is heavily involved. This paper uses the future autonomous vehicle’s interior context as a case study to understand Gen Z’s meaning change around in-car entertainment. It draws on a qualitative research methodology by combining semi-structured interviews with design metaphor activities to understand Gen Z’s altered mindset with the impact of digital technology. As ultimate findings, eight different in- car entertainment mindsets of Gen Z emerged: Effortlessness Seeking, Sense of Belonging, Balance Seeking, Authenticity Seeking, Advocating, Decision-Making, Creating and Interacting. The implications of an autonomous vehicle’s entertainment experience were discussed. It is expected that this study will contribute to understanding the shifting mindset and behaviour of Gen Z in how they desire to entertain themselves within an autonomous vehicle. The study suggests what to consider regarding maximising in-car entertaining experiences for Gen Z

Eliciting User Experience Information in Early Design Phases. The CARE Approach to In-Vehicle UX

Experience-rich input in early phases of a design process can offer valuable information and inspiration to designers. However, there are methodological challenges linked with efforts to understand future user experiences. Experience encompasses multi-layered and tacit data, such as emotions and value, that are important for commercial success but are difficult to elicit from users for existing products, and even more so for concepts in early design phases. At early design phases, the inevitably incomplete representations of product and use context influences the outcomes. It is typically easier to elicit usability-related aspects, meaning that other aspects of experience may be insufficiently addressed. The contribution of this thesis is an approach for eliciting rich user experience (UX) data in early design phases, building on six studies. This thesis employs in-vehicle user experience as a study case, but results are however presented on a methodological level that can also be of use to other interactive products. The overall research questions are: What signifies in-vehicle UX? How can UX data be elicited for input to novel in-vehicle concepts in early design phases?Firstly, the analysis phase of the design process was addressed, where a multi-method approach was employed to study current in-vehicle UX. UX is an umbrella term that has proven difficult to describe and conceptualise in studies. Therefore, the aim of the first study was to better understand what signifies the specific case of in-vehicle UX. Secondly, how to approach and understand user expectations on future autonomous cars was address in the two following studies, in order to address prospective research of novel systems. A method addressing research on user expectations was developed – Setting the Stage for Autonomous Cars. Thirdly, ideation was addressed in a series of workshops, containing generative and creative efforts for ideating future interactive in-vehicle systems. Methods such as enactment, small-scale scenarios, Wizard of Oz, a lo-fi driving simulator and the developed Setting the Stage for Autonomous Cars method were used. The final studies address concept evaluation, and comparatively explore the effects of choosing different product representations (storyboard and interactive prototype) and study contexts (Virtual Reality and in the field) in early UX evaluation. Based on the outcomes of the studies, an approach is proposed – the CARE approach – for enabling richer and more in-depth UX data in early design phases. This approach suggests that there is a need to Contextualise the researched experience (conveying the intended use situation and sentisising the participants to experience), enabling the participant to Act (enabling interaction even at the stages of very lo-fi concepts), supporting Reflection on the experience (enhanced by generative elements in the methods, such as drawing concepts and enacting use) and enabling the participant to Express the experience (in more ways than by just relying on words). Furthermore, the thesis presents findings regarding what signifies in-vehicle UX, for example whole-body, multi-sensory interactions, the importance of the temporal stage of use, the social and multi-device context, and the changing relationship between user and car with increased automation. The results emphasise the importance of addressing the multisensory use situation in each design phase and for participants to express experiences, not only in words but also through enactment and generative techniques