Several different studies have already been conducted up to this point in the pursuit of a reliable self-driving vehicle. While studies have been primarily focused on the technological side of the vehicle, researchers from IDC Herzliya believe the key missing component relates to humanity more than the car itself.
Studies have revealed who is more prone to have a fear of riding in a self-driving car and the results indicate that there are fears from both men and women as well as every generation. While studies on the subject of the self-driving car over the last several years have revealed some missing links in the project, a group of researchers from IDC Herzliya believes they’ve found one of the key missing components; the personality of the user.
The researchers believe the personality of the user is essential when it comes to the actions of the car. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Professor Yair Amichai-Hamburger stated, “There were a lot of great technologies that did not succeed, as they didn’t take the user into account – it is always a challenge for new technologies. When I started reading literature about driverless cars and the issue of trust, I started thinking about the stereotypes of the engineers and the people building the cars. I realized that they didn’t consider one of the main factors: the personality of the passenger.”
Not only is Professor Yair Amichai-Hamburger the main author of this study but he’s also the director of the Research Center for Internet Psychology at IDC Herzliya in Herzliya, Israel.
The most recent study they put together included more than 150 individuals and revealed that those who scored high in the category of conscientiousness had a higher demand for thorough information from the vehicle. Upon the completion of this study, Amichai-Hamburger stated, “This is the first study showing that information exchange should be designed around the personality of the people. The idea is that if people will know ahead that they are getting a car designed around them, they will have a higher level of trust in the car and they will feel the car is answering their psychological needs.”
He would explain briefly what a future experience would look like with the self-driving car according to his vision, adding, “In a future world, you will enter the car, place your ID card after filling out a personality questionnaire. The car will receive your information and design the experience based on your psychological identification.”
There’s no question that it is going to take time to build the trust of the consumer, however, as the professor stated, once the car has proven that it can respond in accordance to the personality of the user, people will be far more comfortable giving it a chance.
