Context-Adaptive Management of Drivers’ Trust in Automated Vehicles

Abstract

Automated vehicles (AVs) that intelligently interact with drivers must build a trustworthy relationship with them. A calibrated level of trust is fundamental for the AV and the driver to collaborate as a team. Techniques that allow AVs to perceive drivers’ trust from drivers’ behaviors and react accordingly are, therefore, needed for context-aware systems designed to avoid trust miscalibrations. This letter proposes a framework for the management of drivers’ trust in AVs. The framework is based on the identification of trust miscalibrations (when drivers’ undertrust or overtrust the AV) and on the activation of different communication styles to encourage or warn the driver when deemed necessary. Our results show that the management framework is effective, increasing (decreasing) trust of undertrusting (overtrusting) drivers, and reducing the average trust miscalibration time periods by approximately 40%. The framework is applicable for the design of SAE Level 3 automated driving systems and has the potential to improve the performance and safety of driver–AV teams.