A Wizard of Oz Field Study to Understand Non-Driving-Related Activities, Trust, and Acceptance of Automated Vehicles

Understanding user needs and behavior in automated vehicles (AVs) while traveling is essential for future in-vehicle interface and service design. Since AVs are not yet market-ready, current knowledge about AV use and perception is based on observations in other transportation modes, interviews, or surveys about the hypothetical situation. In this paper, we close this gap by presenting real-world insights into the attitude towards highly automated driving and non-driving-related activities (NDRAs). Using a Wizard of Oz AV, we conducted a real-world driving study (N = 12) with six rides per participant during multiple days. We provide insights into the users’ perceptions and behavior. We found that (1) the users’ trust a human driver more than a system, (2) safety is the main acceptance factor, and (3) the most popular NDRAs were being idle and the use of the smartphone.