Physiological Measurements in Social Acceptance of Self Driving Technologies

The goal of the present study is to examine the cognitive/physiological correlates of passenger travel experience in autonomously driven transportation systems. We investigated the social acceptance and cognitive aspects of self-driving technology by measuring physiological responses in real-world experimental settings using eye-tracking and EEG measures simultaneously on 17 volunteers. A typical test run included human-driven and autonomous conditions in the same vehicle, in a safe environment. In the spectrum analysis of the eye-tracking data we found significant differences in the complex patterns of eye movements: the structure of movements of different magnitudes were less variable in the autonomous drive condition. EEG data revealed less positive affectivity and slightly higher arousal in the autonomous condition compared to the human-driven condition. Correlates with personality traits are also discussed. These preliminary findings reinforced our initial hypothesis that passenger experience in human and machine navigated conditions entail different physiological and psychological correlates, and those differences are accessible using state of the art in-world measurements. These useful dimensions of passenger experience may serve as a source of information both for the improvement and design of self-navigating technology and for market-related concerns.