Predicting Trust In Autonomous Vehicles: Modeling Young Adult Psychosocial Traits, Risk-Benefit Attitudes, And Driving Factors With Machine Learning

TL;DR

This study uses machine learning to identify key personal and attitudinal factors influencing young adults' trust in autonomous vehicles, emphasizing perceptions of risks and benefits over psychosocial traits.

Contribution

It applies explainable AI to determine the most influential factors affecting trust, providing insights for designing more trustworthy autonomous vehicles for diverse users.

Findings

Perceptions of AV risks and benefits are primary trust predictors.

Attitudes toward feasibility and usability significantly influence trust.

Psychosocial traits are less predictive of trust than experiential and perceptual factors.

Abstract

Low trust remains a significant barrier to Autonomous Vehicle (AV) adoption. To design trustworthy AVs, we need to better understand the individual traits, attitudes, and experiences that impact people's trust judgements. We use machine learning to understand the most important factors that contribute to young adult trust based on a comprehensive set of personal factors gathered via survey (n = 1457). Factors ranged from psychosocial and cognitive attributes to driving style, experiences, and perceived AV risks and benefits. Using the explainable AI technique SHAP, we found that perceptions of AV risks and benefits, attitudes toward feasibility and usability, institutional trust, prior experience, and a person's mental model are the most important predictors. Surprisingly, psychosocial and many technology- and driving-specific factors were not strong predictors. Results highlight the importance of individual differences for designing trustworthy AVs for diverse groups and lead to key implications for future design and research.