Name: Sidney Scott-Sharoni 

Master’s Thesis Defense Meeting 

Date: Monday, November 27th, 2023 

Time: 2:15 PM

Room location/number: Georgia Tech Library - Price Gilbert 4222 

Optional Zoom Meeting Link: click here 

Password: 281270

Advisor: Bruce Walker, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech)  

Thesis Committee Members:
Richard Catrambone, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech) 

Scott Moffat, Ph.D. (Georgia Tech) 

Jamie Gorman, Ph.D. (Arizona State University) 

Title: Directability through AI Customization: The Effect of Choice on Trust and Acceptance in Highly Automated Vehicles

Abstract:  People feel apprehensive about using or relying on highly automated vehicles (American Automotive Association, 2019). One method of assuaging fears involves providing explanations for the system’s behaviors using a Human-Machine Interface (HMI).  However, understanding the amount of information for optimal human-automation interaction can prove difficult due to differences in individuals’ preferences, experiences, and needs. An underexplored method that may account for these discrepancies involves providing users with choices or customization. The Coactive Design Approach suggests that including directability, or the power to influence a system’s actions, may improve how users interact with systems (Johnson et al., 2014). The following study investigated how customization affordances and modified vehicle aspect of a Level 4 automated vehicle affected trust and acceptance. One hundred twenty participants experienced one highly automated simulator drive, during which they engaged in a visually demanding game. A MANOVA assessed the interaction of and main effects of customization availability and modified vehicle aspect on trust and acceptance. While participants who customized had higher average trust and acceptance in the automated vehicle than participants who did not customize, only the main effect of vehicle aspect significantly impacted the multivariate dimension of trust and acceptance in the automated vehicle. That is, modifications to the vehicle impacted users regardless of whether they chose the modification. The game score and subjective trust did significantly correlate to a small, positive extent, indicating that higher trust in a system may improve non-driving related task performance. Future research should continue to investigate the role of choice in the interaction between individuals and highly automated systems to understand the psychological impacts of directability.