The Cultural Influence of Control Sharing in Autonomous Driving

This research investigated the cross-cultural perspectives on control-sharing in ethical decision-making when both human and AI-enabled auto-driven vehicles to involve. We reviewed the current practices. We then illustrated a survey we conducted related to this topic on a total of 771 subjects from three nations, the U.S., India, and Nigeria. We found participants from individualistic culture tend to emphasize personal choice and human control. We also found though most subjects prefer human drivers to take full control, India's subjects were more ambivalent in their attitude due to lower uncertainty avoidance. Also, subjects with higher incomes were more likely to cede control. There was consistent proportional distribution across nations in the control sharing configuration, with 2/3 chose full customization, and 1/3 chose limited customization. Car owners are more likely to have more control and full customization. Our findings shed important insights on both research in this domain and industry practitioners.