Safer than the average human driver (who is less safe than me)? Examining a popular safety benchmark for self-driving cars
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Abstract
- Although the level of safety required before drivers will accept self-driving cars is not dear, the criterion of being safer than a human driver has become pervasive in the discourse on vehicle automation. This criterion actually means "safer than the average human driver," because it is necessarily defined with respect to population-level data. At the level of individual risk assessment a body of research has shown that most drivers perceive themselves to be safer than the average driver (the better-than-average effect). Method: Using an online sample, this study examined U.S. drivers' ratings of their own ability to drive safely and their desired level of safety for self driving vehicles. Results: This study replicated the better-than average effect and showed that most drivers stated a desire for self-driving cars that are safer than their own perceived ability to drive safely before they would: (1) feel reasonably safe riding in a self-driving vehicle; (2) buy a self-driving vehicle, all other things (cost, etc.) being equal; and (3) allow self-driving vehicles on public roads. Conclusions: Since most drivers believe they are better than average drivers, the benchmark of achieving automation that is safer than a human driver (on average) may not represent acceptably safe performance of self-driving cars for most drivers. Practical applications: If perceived level of safety is an important contributor to acceptance of self-driving vehicles, the popular "safer than a human driver" benchmark may not be adequate for widespread acceptance.
| Title | Safer than the average human driver (who is less safe than me)? Examining a popular safety benchmark for self-driving cars |
|---|---|
| Creator | Nees, Michael |
| Publisher | Journal of Safety Research |
| Academic Department | Psychology |
| Division | Natural Sciences |
| Organization | Lafayette College |
| Date Issued | June 2019 |
| Date Available | 2022-06-01 |
| Type | Article |
| Language | English |
| Keyword | Trust in automation |
| Autonomous driving | |
| Human-automation interaction | |
| Vehicle automation | |
| Self-driving vehicles | |
| Bibliographic Citation | Nees, M. (2019 Jun) "Safer than the average human driver (who is less safe than me)? Examining a popular safety benchmark for self-driving cars." Journal of Safety Research 69: 61-68. |
| Standard Identifier | DOI 10.1016/j.jsr.2019.02.002 |
| Handle 10385/pz50gw60c | |
| Permalink | http://hdl.handle.net/10385/pz50gw60c |
| Rights Statement |
In Copyright
|
| Rights Holders | National Safety Council |
| Elsevier Ltd. |
Contains
| File | Nees-JournalofSafetyResearch-vol69-2019.pdf | Uploaded 2020-05-14 | Public | Download |
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