367268 Rowan University, Glassboro, New Jersey, USA.
6567 Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
Hum Factors. 2020 Mar;62(2):278-287. doi: 10.1177/0018720819853993. Epub 2019 Jul 3.
Identify factors that impact parents' decisions about allowing an unaccompanied child to ride in an autonomous vehicle (AV).
AVs are being tested in several U.S. cities and on highways in multiple states. Meanwhile, suburban parents are using ridesharing services to shuttle children from school to extracurricular activities. Parents may soon be able to hire AVs to transport children.
Nineteen parents of 8- to 16-year-old children, and some of their children, rode in a driving simulator in autonomous mode, then were interviewed. Parents also participated in focus groups. Topics included minimum age for solo child passengers, types of trips unaccompanied children might take, and vehicle features needed to support child passengers.
Parents would require two-way audio communication and prefer video feeds of vehicle interiors, seatbelt checks, automatic locking, secure passenger identification, and remote access to vehicle information. Parents cited convenience as the greatest benefit and fear that AVs could not protect passengers during unplanned trip interruptions as their greatest concern.
Manufacturers have an opportunity to design family-friendly AVs from the outset, rather than retrofit them to be safe for child passengers. More research, especially usability studies where families interact with technology prototypes, is needed to understand how AV design impacts child passengers.
Potential applications of this research include not only designing vehicles that can be used to safely transport children, seniors who no longer drive, and individuals with disabilities but also developing regulations, policies, and societal infrastructure to support safe child transport via AVs.
确定影响父母允许儿童独自乘坐自动驾驶汽车（AV）的因素。
在美国的几个城市和多个州的高速公路上，都在测试自动驾驶汽车。与此同时，郊区的父母正在使用拼车服务接送孩子上下学和参加课外活动。父母可能很快就能聘请自动驾驶汽车来接送孩子。
19 名 8 至 16 岁儿童的父母及其部分孩子在自动驾驶模式下乘坐驾驶模拟器，然后接受采访。父母还参加了焦点小组。讨论的主题包括儿童独自乘客的最低年龄、儿童可能乘坐的旅行类型以及支持儿童乘客的车辆功能。
父母需要双向音频通讯，并希望车内视频反馈、安全带检查、自动锁定、乘客身份识别安全、以及远程访问车辆信息。父母认为自动驾驶汽车的最大好处是方便，但也担心自动驾驶汽车在计划外的行程中断时无法保护乘客，这是他们最担心的问题。
制造商有机会从一开始就设计适合家庭使用的自动驾驶汽车，而不是对其进行改装以确保儿童乘客的安全。需要进行更多的研究，特别是家庭与技术原型互动的可用性研究，以了解自动驾驶汽车的设计如何影响儿童乘客。
这项研究的潜在应用不仅包括设计可以安全运送儿童、不再开车的老年人和残疾人士的车辆，还包括制定法规、政策和社会基础设施，以支持通过自动驾驶汽车安全运送儿童。
