Trust, Traits, and Turning Points: Decoding Operator Responses to Real-World ADAS Malfunctions.

Abstract

OCCUPATIONAL APPLICATIONThis study found that high emotional trust in Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems (ADAS) showed a non-significant tendency toward slower manual intervention during malfunctions, and that an operator's personality was related to specific information needs. For practitioners, this indicates a critical safety gap where affective comfort, feeling "too safe" reduces readiness. To mitigate these risks, organizations should prioritize hands-on, simulated malfunction training. By exposing operators to controlled scenarios such as "phantom braking" events, practitioners can help them experience system limitations firsthand, rebuilding the protective skepticism and preparedness that sustained automation use tends to erode. Because occupational driving spans a range of operational models, safety protocols should be tailored accordingly. In managed fleets, organizations have an opportunity to implement personality-aligned Human-Machine Interface (HMI) configurations that address the specific cognitive and informational needs of individual drivers. For "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) gig platforms, where organizations cannot modify the vehicle's native systems, broader software-based interventions are more practical, for example, in-app geofenced warnings that alert drivers as they approach known ADAS limitation zones. Together, these targeted, context-sensitive interventions help recalibrate trust and prevent overreliance, supporting rapid recovery and sustained situational awareness across the diverse occupational contexts in which ADAS is now used.