Self-driving cars offer a bright future, but only if the public can overcome the psychological challenges that stand in the way of widespread adoption. We discuss three: ethical dilemmas, overreactions to accidents, and the opacity of the cars’ decision-making algorithms — and propose steps towards addressing them.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Relevant articles
Open Access articles citing this article.
-
Large language models could change the future of behavioral healthcare: a proposal for responsible development and evaluation
npj Mental Health Research Open Access 02 April 2024
-
Knowledge as a key determinant of public support for autonomous vehicles
Scientific Reports Open Access 25 January 2024
-
Framing self-sacrifice in the investigation of moral judgment and moral emotions in human and autonomous driving dilemmas
Motivation and Emotion Open Access 04 May 2023
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Americans Feel Unsafe Sharing the Road with Fully Self-Driving Vehicles. American Automobile Association (7 March 2017); http://go.nature.com/2i296OW
Wortham, R. H. & Theodorou, A. Connect. Sci. 29, 242–248 (2017).
Bonnefon, J. F., Shariff, A. & Rahwan, I. Science 352, 1573–1576 (2016).
Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M. & Van den Bergh, B. J. Personal. Soc. Psychol. 98, 392 (2010).
Gromet, D. M., Kunreuther, H. & Larrick, R. P. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 110, 9314–9319 (2013).
Dietvorst, B. J., Simmons, J. P. & Massey, C. J. Exp. Psychol. General 144, 114 (2015).
Sieck, W. R. & Arkes, H. R. J. Behav. Dec. Making 18, 29–53 (2005).
Sunstein, C. R. & Zeckhauser, R. Environ. Resour. Econ. 48, 435–449 (2011).
Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (Official Journal of the European Union, 2016).
Koo, J., Kwac, J., Ju, W., Steinert, M., Leifer, L. & Nass, C. Int. J. Interact. Design Manufact. 9, 269–275 (2014).
Acknowledgements
Support from the ANR-Labex Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse is gratefully acknowledged. I.R. is grateful for support from the Ethics & Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shariff, A., Bonnefon, JF. & Rahwan, I. Psychological roadblocks to the adoption of self-driving vehicles. Nat Hum Behav 1, 694–696 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0202-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-017-0202-6
This article is cited by
-
Knowledge as a key determinant of public support for autonomous vehicles
Scientific Reports (2024)
-
Large language models could change the future of behavioral healthcare: a proposal for responsible development and evaluation
npj Mental Health Research (2024)
-
The more they think, the less they want: studying people’s attitudes about autonomous vehicles could also contribute to shaping them
AI and Ethics (2024)
-
Affective Responses to Natural and Technological Disasters; An Evolutionary Perspective
Adaptive Human Behavior and Physiology (2023)
-
Moral judgment, decision times and emotional salience of a new developed set of sacrificial manual driving dilemmas
Current Psychology (2023)