Four design fundamentals to raise trust with the new "designated driver"

As autonomous vehicle technology continues to advance and become a reality, drivers are beginning to think more seriously about what the new autonomous experience may look like. Many are worried about how their roles as drivers may change and aren't sure if they'll be comfortable trusting such a new transportation experience. The companies designing these cars are taking a hard look at how to alleviate these concerns and make the best decisions to create experiences that people trust, ensuring social acceptance, and seamless driver adaptation. In this article, I'll lay out four research-backed design fundamentals design teams should consider to create experiences around trust, comfort, and control for drivers, passengers, and passersby.  My team and I have put these design tenets to the test and found them to be successful. I hope you can use these to improve the design experience for you and your teams, and most importantly, to improve the experiences of passengers as they embark on a new and unfamiliar automated journey.

1.Set realistic expectations

Years ago, science fiction and media created an aura of magic around autonomous cars. There was a notion that the cars would burst onto the scene with the ability to fly. They'll talk to us. They'll magically cook and deliver delicious snacks. These are, of course, unrealistic expectations. The reality is much less flashy. Models will be iterative and slow to appear, as people slowly come to accept the different aspects of control and new travel paradigms. 

Companies should design autonomous vehicles with alerts, features, and functionality that address this reality so that drivers and passengers won't feel let down. By stating clear points up front, all drivers will understand and be familiar with the 'reality' of autonomous vehicles. Designers should create an experience that communicates the strengths and weaknesses of this emerging technology and prepares drivers and passengers to have the right frame of mind.

One of the biggest misconceptions worth addressing, for instance, is the perception of lightning-fast speed. SciFi built an expectation that autonomous cars will zoom around, ferrying passengers to their destinations in record time, but autonomous vehicles are slow. But they're slow for good reasons: safety needs to be paramount for autonomous vehicles. Fully automated vehicles drive more slowly than those driven by humans. They will hesitate, using extra caution if there is any potential object in their path. They may avoid certain traffic issues and take different routes than when a human pilot is in full control. But the tradeoff for slightly slower progression is safety and security.

The more information people have, the less the passengers will wonder and wondering creates uncertainty, doubt, and discomfort. To productively engage and occupy users to turn uncertainty into real understanding, designers can communicate safety decisions to passengers. Establish safety reasoning and explain the safety measures may lead to delays. Design a way to proactively communicate to users immediately upon entering the vehicle. This may be audio or visual messages: "On this trip we will be slower because we are traveling in the city rather than on open roads," or "We are maintaining this speed to comply with the posted speed limits."

Another prudent step is to provide driving details upfront. Explain the route the car is going to take, and the reasoning behind the route, so passengers understand and feel more comfortable. This can be as simple as explaining, "Based on traffic data, I will be taking highway 101 to provide you with the fastest route to your destination."

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2. Shift from novelty to legitimacy

To achieve widespread adoption of self-driving cars, society needs to perceive the technology as proven, not a novel, unproven concept. One of the best ways designers can help users quickly get comfortable with the technology and set minds at ease is by showing how the cars will address foundational needs of potential users, rather than touting cutting-edge capabilities that are attention-grabbing but that don't fall within established expectations. 

Those needs, motivations, and interests will be different for users. Some may want to lean on autonomous vehicles to give them more productive time to conduct business meetings on the way to work. Others may want the AV to bring grandpa safely to the doctor, or free up mom from shuttling kids to after-school practices. Designers need to accurately determine needs based on entrenched transportation patterns for various target groups, because those usage patterns are not novelties, they are foundational. 

Designers can customize the autonomous vehicle experience for users in a way that directly addresses their needs. If you know you are targeting people who are elderly and may want to simply get to their medical appointments, you can design options that assume a caregiver may be involved, like offering the option to switch from shuttle mode (with a personal route to and from a specific doctor's office or hospital) to chauffeur mode, allowing the caregiver to take over the driving if necessary for safety purposes. 

Other types of caregiver scenarios can be tailored differently. Research shows parents wanted to rent ride-share vehicles to shuttle their kids to extracurricular activities, but they didn't trust the experiences because they felt too disconnected from their kids. For a self-driving car, they want to have a total sightline, to have constant visibility and audio communication while their children are en route, regardless of whether caregivers are in the cars or not.

By making it clear to users that the vehicle will provide value by addressing their foundational needs, users will feel that the experience is personalized, relevant, and necessary rather than a novel experience. 

3. Raise trust through communications

The concept of removing a human driver is still unsettling to mainstream society. Statistical data that shows how self-driving vehicles improve safety and reduce traffic congestion may not be enough to convince users that a self-driving car behaves better than a human driver. Designers will need to provide those stats but then go above and beyond to build confidence by 1) repeatedly conveying some of the ways drivers and passengers can use their new-found free time made possible by driverless transportation, then 2) directly reiterating the benefits of those positive interactions to users. Communications raise trust by providing facts and hard proof and building feelings of comfort, which deepen trust.

Think of delivering these updates both in real-time and as past tense, this is the opportunity to remind users of the value the car has provided over time.

First, there is the new experience of handing over control. Uncertainty breeds mistrust, and humans build trust when we feel in control and safe. A vehicle should create that sense of control and safety by communicating why it is doing something, like changing directions, or alerting drivers to what's ahead, so there are never any surprises. 

Next, there is the physical layout of cars that can create unease and distrust. Fully autonomous vehicles may have no need for a steering wheel. To build trust, designers may want to consider form factors for the vehicles that give someone something to hold on to, it's a physical measure of comfort and control which removes feelings of mistrust. If you take away control in one way, give users another way to gain a sense of normalcy. 

Then, remind the driver that handing over control of the car can provide them with new value. If a car is in full command mode, the driver is free to use the commute time doing something valuable to them. Cars may provide audio reminders with phrases such as, "While the car shuttles you to your destination, how can I help make use of your time? Would you like me to reschedule any of your meetings? Would you like to call your next contact? Would you like to listen to the news?" Each time this value is communicated, trust deepens. 

Finally, re-state the value. For instance, "You've taken 12 trips to and from the office in shuttle mode, which means you've had 12 extra hours of free time." That message conveys indirectly that passengers arrived safely and were able to get value out of the time in the car, rather than spending that time driving the car themselves.

4. Prepare for a Multiplayer Experience

Designers have the heady task of designing self-driving cars for more than just the drivers. Self-driving cars roaming the streets will affect everyone and everything around us. Designers have an opportunity to design for interactions inside and outside of cars: passengers, pedestrians, cyclists, other vehicles, traffic conditions, and surrounding transportation infrastructure. Here are just a few of the many ways designers should think holistically to design for multiple active and passive stakeholders. 

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For passengers: 
In a partially autonomous vehicle, there is a need for a human driver. In a fully automated vehicle, there is no need for a human driver. But in both scenarios, it is beneficial to designate someone as the primary passenger. User research has shown that when traveling in groups, riders need a primary decision-maker for safety protocol or in the event of an emergency. Although the primary passenger would not be technically "operating" the vehicle, he or she may be called upon to engage when necessary.

Also, even though a car may not need a driver for full autonomy, they will still need a designated passenger to provide advice or commands if there’s a need for a full takeover or partial involvement. 

Design a setup moment that denotes who in the vehicle will be a designated passenger. This may be via voice recognition, communicated at the start of a trip to explain that drivers or passengers may need to take control, with a phrase such as, "Please designate a primary passenger who can take control of the car if needed, and a secondary decision-making passenger."

For other people on the road or nearby:
Design recognition into the cars. Drivers may do head nods or make eye contact with people outside the vehicle. Hand gestures give pedestrians and drivers assurances that they've been recognized and can proceed as needed. Recognition lets cyclists know they can safely operate near the vehicle with no one in the driver's seat how does the vehicle signal these types of recognition to others? 

Consider exterior lighting with text or symbols to acknowledge others. For instance, it can have a message board on the grill of the car, to say “I see you,” or, “I will wait.” There needs to be a way for vehicles to give cyclists and pedestrians assurance that it is safe to operate near or around it. 

Rather than just full text, you can also begin to create standard lights on vehicles to let people know the car is aware of their presence. 

If there is a cyclist behind or to the side of the car, there can be flashing lights (similar to blind spot monitoring communications that exist today) to make it evident to surrounding people and drivers that the car 'sees' the cyclist.

Or you can speak symbolically. If a cyclist is too close, blink red cycle lights. If the car has seen the cyclist and the path is clear, blink green.

In general, the vehicle should convey to passersby what the car sees by providing visible and audible cues to riders and the people outside the car.

This is all to say that you need to acknowledge that there are multiple players who need to be assured that they are recognized and communicated with to ensure safety and build trust. 

The road ahead

Even though autonomous systems are well on the way to automate the future, humans still desire independence and control. As automation simplifies tasks, designers must build trust and deliver exponential value in new vehicle experiences.

The creation of autonomous cars is a technological feat. But technology alone isn’t enough to create the seamless experiences necessary to usher in an autonomous vehicle future. Strategic user-centered design (across physical, digital, and virtual contexts) will be the key to delivering vehicles that successfully evolve social acceptance and transition consumers into a new era of transportation. Design teams can refer to the fundamentals provided in this article as a solid starting point to create human-machine interfaces that reduce concerns, increase trust, and help self-driving vehicles deliver the highest value to users and society.