Believing machines can out-do people may fuel acceptance of self-driving cars

In a survey, people who had no trouble believing

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that machines can outperform humans—also called posthuman ability—were more likely to accept the presence of driverless cars on the highway. The findings may help carmakers design self-driving cars, as well as help policy makers better understand the factors behind the acceptance of autonomous vehicles, a concept that has caused considerable debate, according to S. Shyam Sundar, James P. Jimirro Professor of Media Effects and affiliate of Penn State's Institute for CyberScience (ICS).

"There are two camps—one camp is very strongly in favor of these kinds of smart technologies, such as self-driving cars, and the other, which has grave concerns about giving control to machines, especially for vital tasks like this," said Sundar, who is also the co-director of the Media Effects Research Laboratory at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications.

According to the researchers, some people have a knee-jerk reaction that gives them faith in the effectiveness of computers and machines. That faith carries over to systems that can drive cars, said Sundar, who worked with Andrew Gambino, a doctoral candidate in mass communication.

"In this study, the strongest predictor for accepting self-driving cars was posthuman ability, the belief that computers can surpass humans in this particular task," said Gambino, the lead author of the study. "We have come to a point now where we should no longer be talking about machines approximating humans in their ability, but, rather, outperforming humans. In the sense of safety, in reliability, in doing tasks without becoming tired, there are many arguments to be made that machines have transcended human abilities."

Posthuman ability had about twice the effect on the acceptance of self-driving cars as other beliefs found significant in the survey, such as the idea that self-driving cars are cool, or a person's general openness toward new technologies.

The strength of the posthuman effect may allow designers to re-envision the interiors of self-driving cars, according to the researchers. Steering wheels, which have been standard in cars for more than a century, could be eliminated to make room for interactive devices or interfaces, the researchers suggested.

https://phys.org/news/2019-05-believing-machines-out-do-people-fuel.html