PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Future Transp.
Sec. Transport Safety
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/ffutr.2025.1627368
Running head: HAND POSITION AND DRIVER TRUST Dissociation of Subjective and Objective Measures of Trust in Vehicle Automation: A Driving Simulator Study
Provisionally accepted
- 1Old Dominion University, Norfolk, United States
- 2Wichita State University, Wichita, United States
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Trust is a crucial factor that influences human-automation interaction in surface transportation.Previous research indicates that participants tend to display higher levels of subjective trust toward lower-level automated systems compared to high-level automated systems. However, administering subjective trust measures via questionnaires can interfere with primary task performance, limiting researchers' ability to measure trust continuously in a real-world manner.In the current driving simulator study, 25 drivers using an advanced driving system (ADS) were randomly assigned to either an active (L2) or passive (L3) automated driving condition.Participants experienced eight near-miss driving scenarios with or without obstructions in a distributed driving simulator and rated their subjective trust before and after navigating the scenarios. Additionally, we coded hand positions from recorded video footage of the participants' in-vehicle behavior. Hand placements were coded on a predefined five-point system near the time of the simulated connected vehicle technology's collision alert. Results showed that drivers progressively lost trust in the automated system as they approached and passed the projected collision point in each scenario. Furthermore, drivers in the active condition displayed lower levels of trust than those in the passive condition. This finding contrasts with previous research suggesting that subjective trust ratings are comparable between Level 2 and Level 3 vehicle automation groups. These findings highlight a dissociation between subjective and behavioral measures of trust, suggesting that self-report methods may overlook important aspects of drivers' trust that can be captured through behavioral measures.
Keywords: Trust, Automated driving system, driving simulation, Connected vehicle technology, hand position
Received: 15 May 2025; Accepted: 15 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Petkac, Sato, Xie and Yamani. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yusuke Yamani, yusukeyamani@gmail.com
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