A Trial of Psychological Evaluation of a Driving-Support Agent That Praises the Driver Through an Actual-Car Driving Experiment on Public Roads

Abstract

This paper reports on the psychological evaluation of a driving-support agent that praises the driver in a real car environment. We conducted an experiment in which 12 participants, recruited through a staffing agency, drove an experimental vehicle (Toyota Corolla Sport) equipped with a driving-support agent on public roads and experienced praise from the agent. As a result of the psychological evaluation after the experience, the impression evaluation of the driving-support agent itself and the praise was high. Furthermore, a correlation analysis between the impression evaluation and the Big Five personality traits of the experiment participants revealed that participants with high cooperativeness and openness tended to have a good impression of the driving-support agent’s compliment, while participants with high diligence and negative emotionality tended to have a low impression of the effect of the compliments on improving their awareness of safe driving. On the other hand, participants with high industriousness and negative emotionality tended to have a low impression of the effect of the improvement in their awareness of safe driving.