Explaining Away Control: Exploring the Relationship between Explainable AI and Passengers' Desire for Control in Automated Vehicles

The cooperation between humans and automated vehicles (AVs) has emerged as an important perspective for understanding the authority dynamic of future transportation. Previous research indicates that passengers desire to influence the AV’s behavior in certain traffic situations. However, automation could counter this desire for control by providing more detailed explanations of its behavior and actions. Consequently, this paper investigates the potential relationship between an AV’s level of explainability and passengers’ desire for control to intervene in certain traffic situations while also examining the impact on passengers’ perception concerning UX, trust, and acceptance of AVs. Preliminary results from a virtual reality driving simulator study (N = 50) indicate that the level of explainability of an AV does significantly influence passengers’ desire to intervene or their perception of control over the vehicle. It can also be observed that the level of explainability significantly impacts the user experience, trust in AVs, and perceived safety.