Survey Study Found That Participants Had Overall Positive Perceptions of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, With Over 90 Percent Considering It Useful.
Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use Were Found to Directly Impact the Acceptance of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, Based on Responses from 60 Participants in Germany.
Munich, Germany
Drivers’ Acceptance of Adaptive Warning–Monitoring Systems. Findings From a Car Driving Simulator Study
Summary Information
Vehicles are increasingly equipped with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to assist drivers in maintaining safe driving behavior and improve overall road safety. Understanding users’ acceptance and perceptions toward these systems is crucial, especially in the context of developing or implementing additional assistance features. This study aimed to validate the factors impacting driver acceptance, such as the role of driving experience as an external variable. An advanced warning monitoring system was implemented in a driving simulator environment in Germany with 60 driver participants to assess what drives user acceptance, how external factors influence it, and whether the classical technology acceptance model (TAM) framework applies.
METHODOLOGY
Participants were recruited through online and offline channels: social media, websites, mailing lists, posters, etc.) to assemble a sample representative of Munich’s population. The study included three simulated drives: a baseline drive in which in-vehicle warnings were not activated, a drive with real-time warnings, and a drive with an additional distraction component (a texting task for participants). Afterward, participants were asked to answer a questionnaire about their perceptions toward general ADAS and driving, as well as the implemented system. The study had several limitations including: the relatively small sample size used to represent the city’s driving population; the extent to which the driving simulator environment was realistic; the extent to which the sensory equipment could have impacted overall system acceptance; and the use of questionnaire data for analysis instead of simulator driving data.
FINDINGS
- The overall attitudes of respondents towards ADAS indicated that participants tended to have overall positive perceptions, meaning that they mostly (over 90 percent) thought it was useful, trusted it (above 60 percent), and found the information they provided to be clear and understandable (about 65 percent).
- Very few participants thought of ADAS to be distracting (about 15 percent).
- For the specific system, most participants (above 75 percent) found it useful to maintain safe driving and would recommend to others (about 60 percent).
- Overall system clarity was also assessed and was perceived to be high (about 90 percent); this was also the case for visual clarity (about 90 percent), but less so for auditory clarity (about 50 percent).
- A statistical analysis of the questionnaire results led to the partial validation of the TAM for the system, for which perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the system were found to be crucial factors for the behavioral intention to use it.
