Trust in AVs: The Impact of Expectations and Individual Differences

Abstract

Trust has been identified as an important determinant of the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. However, individual differences such as age, gender, and education have shown to impact the development of trust in automation. From prior literature on technology acceptance, we know that human expectations of technology may also be important to the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. Yet, we know very little with regards to the impact of individual differences or expectations on the trust and acceptance of autonomous vehicles. To address this shortcoming, we propose a theoretical framework based on expectation confirmation theory which explains the relationships between individual differences, expectations, trust and the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. To empirically examine this theoretical framework, we propose a study employing a 2 x 2 factorial within-subject experiment with four conditions representing different driving environments. We believe our results will contribute significantly to the literature on the acceptance of autonomous vehicles.