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Abstract Many communities struggle to provide safe, accessible, and reliable transportation services for older adults due to high demand, rising costs, driver shortages, and other evolving challenges. Innovative transportation solutions are needed to support the current and future populations of older adults. Low-speed, shared-use, driverless shuttles present an exciting development in automated vehicle (AV) technology with potential to meet mobility needs of older adults in their community. Understanding older adults’ perceptions about and willingness to consider using these emerging modes of transportation is vital to realizing the full potential of these technologies. This presentation summarizes an in-person study conducted with 12 older (average: 66 +/- 4 years of age, range: 60 to 80 years) and 10 younger (average: 44 +/- 11 years) adults that evaluated a stationary, proof-of-concept shared-use AV retrofitted with accessibility features. We will present findings on perceptions regarding accessibility, safety, and willingness to use driverless AVs along with human factors design recommendations. While questionnaire-based studies have been the dominant approach to understanding older adults’ perceptions about shared-use AVs, in-person evaluations even with prototype AVs as described here, provide opportunities to identify goals, needs and preferences of older adults concerning usability and safety in early design stages, and through hands-on exploration help older adults develop good mental models, i.e., understand AV capabilities and limitations, towards building trust and acceptance for these emerging modes of transportation. Research and policy implications will be discussed towards enabling emerging driverless shared-use AV technologies that support safe and independent community mobility for older adults.
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Transporting Children in Autonomous Vehicles: An Exploratory Study
ObjectiveIdentify factors that impact parents’ decisions about allowing an unaccompanied child to ride in an autonomous vehicle (AV). BackgroundAVs are being tested in several U.S. cities and on highways in multiple states. Meanwhile, suburban parents are using ridesharing services to shuttle children from school to extracurricular activities. Parents may soon be able to hire AVs to transport children. MethodNineteen parents of 8- to 16-year-old children, and some of their children, rode in a driving simulator in autonomous mode, then were interviewed. Parents also participated in focus groups. Topics included minimum age for solo child passengers, types of trips unaccompanied children might take, and vehicle features needed to support child passengers. ResultsParents would require two-way audio communication and prefer video feeds of vehicle interiors, seatbelt checks, automatic locking, secure passenger identification, and remote access to vehicle information. Parents cited convenience as the greatest benefit and fear that AVs could not protect passengers during unplanned trip interruptions as their greatest concern. ConclusionManufacturers have an opportunity to design family-friendly AVs from the outset, rather than retrofit them to be safe for child passengers. More research, especially usability studies where families interact with technology prototypes, is needed to understand how AV design impacts child passengers. ApplicationPotential applications of this research include not only designing vehicles that can be used to safely transport children, seniors who no longer drive, and individuals with disabilities but also developing regulations, policies, and societal infrastructure to support safe child transport via AVs.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1741306
- PAR ID:
- 10548973
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
- Volume:
- 62
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 0018-7208
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 278-287
- Size(s):
- p. 278-287
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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