Passenger Anxiety when Seated in a Virtual Reality Self-Driving Car

Abstract

A virtual reality study was conducted to understand participants anxiety when immersed in a virtual reality trip with a self-driving car. Participants were placed as passengers in a virtual car, and they were seated in the co-driver seat. Five different conditions were developed and examined. For this experiment, the Anxiety Modality Questionnaire that captures the cognitive anxiety of participants was used. The obtained results indicated that the participants level of anxiety for the partial awareness of the driver condition is influenced less than expected. Specifically, lower levels of anxiety were found when the driver is either fully or partially aware of the traffic and the behavior of the car, and higher anxiety levels were found when the driver is completely unaware.