Drivers\u27 Decision Making and Behaviors in Self- Driving Cars

To study the take-over performance by human drivers of automated vehicles, we developed an experiment that simulates an infant present in the vehicle. To determine how a baby present in the vehicle would impact the steering direction of Level-2 automated vehicles when approaching a T- intersection, we had participants drive a driving simulator. For the experimental group, we presented participants with knowledge that a baby was in the vehicle and a recording of baby sounds. The control group received an introduction to the study but did not receive any context of a baby present in the vehicle or baby noises. We hypothesized that by providing context to the participants that there was an infant in the backseat on the passenger side, they would be most likely to turn right. We also hypothesized that by providing context to participants that there was an infant in the backseat directly behind or behind to the right position on the driver\u27s side, they would be more likely to turn left instead. To test this hypothesis, each participant was randomly assigned to a group in which we provided one of the three situational contexts: a baby present in the vehicle directly behind the driver, behind the driver to the right, or not present in the vehicle. We are currently collecting the data