Trust in autonomous vehicles: insights from a Swedish suburb

This paper investigates elements of trust in autonomous vehicles (AVs). We contextualise autonomous vehicles as part of people's everyday settings to extend previous understandings of trust and explore trust in autonomous vehicles in concrete social contexts. We conducted online co-creation workshops with 22 participants, using design probes to explore trust and AVs in relation to people's everyday lives. Using a socio-technical perspective, we show how trust and acceptance depend not only on the underlying AV technology but also – if not more so – on human-to-human relationships and real-life social circumstances. We argue that when investigating issues of trust and automation, the scope of analysis needs to be broadened to include a more complex socio-technical set of (human and non-human) agents, to extend from momentary human-computer interactions to a wider timescale, and be situated in concrete spaces, social networks, and situations.

本文针对自动驾驶汽车（Autonomous Vehicles，AVs）中的信任要素展开研究。我们将自动驾驶汽车置于人们的日常场景中进行语境化分析，以期拓展既有信任研究的认知边界，并在具体的社会语境中探索人们对自动驾驶汽车的信任问题。本研究联合22名参与者开展线上共创工作坊，借助设计探针工具，探究与人们日常生活息息相关的自动驾驶汽车信任议题。本研究采用社会技术视角，揭示出人们对自动驾驶汽车的信任与接受度，不仅取决于底层自动驾驶汽车技术本身，在更大程度上更依赖于人际互动关系与真实社会情境。本文提出，在探究信任与自动化相关议题时，分析范畴需要得到拓展：应纳入更为复杂的社会技术维度的（人类与非人类）主体集合，将研究范围从即时的人机交互延伸至更长的时间跨度，并将研究置于具体空间、社会网络与真实情境之中。