On Building Users’ Initial Trust in Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract

With a high degree of uncertainty, taxi service companies begin incorporating autonomous vehicles in their transportation services. The authors examine the factors that influence users’ initial trust in autonomous vehicles. They extend the initial trust model and validate the model in the context of an emerging technology. The initial trust model examines the influence of trust base factors (representing cognitive, personality, calculative, and institutional categories) and subjective norms on trusting beliefs, trusting attitude, and trusting intention. Findings indicate that faith in intelligent machines, calculative cost/benefit perception, perceived societal benefits, organizational situation normality, and technology structural assurance are potential indicators of users’ trusting beliefs in this context. The paper contributes to the theory and practice by extending the initial trust model and examining trusting factors in the context of an emerging technology that requires understanding users’ mentality before launching autonomous vehicles on a wide scale.