The sound of trust: sonification of car intentions and perception in a context of autonomous drive

A main challenge to the successful wide scale introduction of self-driving vehicles is users' trust in automation technology. This study's primary aim was to investigate whether auditory displays can enhance users' trust when they ride in self-driving cars. Twenty-eight subjects participated in an experiment utilising a virtual reality simulation. All subjects rode in a virtual vehicle with and without an auditory display. The display contained signals that provided information about the intentions of the car, as well as other road users that the car focused on. Participants' responses were collected during and after the rides. The results suggest that auditory displays can be useful to improve users' trust. Furthermore, the designed auditory display received high scores in terms of user acceptance. These results have implications for the interaction design of self-driving cars and can guide future auditory display research.