Trust in Automation: Comparison of Automobile, Robot, Medical, and Cyber Aid Technologies

Abstract

The adoption and appropriate utilization of automated subsystems is dependent on the acceptance, trust, and reliance in the automated subsystem and the systems as a whole. The differences in trust attitudes between vehicle, robot, medical devices, and cyber aids, as affected by dispositional and learned factors has not been studied. As such this paper employs an anonymous online survey to evaluate the contribution of these factors to trust by technology. The results indicate automation in medical devices are ranked as the most trusted, and the automation trust index is highest for automation in cyber aids, followed by medical devices. Vehicle automation and robot automation are the least trusted technologies by both measures. Furthermore, the largest contributors to trust index included familiarity with the technology, perceived importance and usefulness of the technology, and propensity to trust automation. This study illustrates the importance of considering demographics, attitudes, and experience in trust studies.