Vehicle Politeness in Driving Situations

Future vehicles are becoming more like driving partners instead of mere machines. With the application of advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs), vehicles perform driving tasks while drivers monitor the functioning states of vehicles. This change in interaction requires a deliberate consideration of how vehicles should present driving-related information. As a way of encouraging drivers to more readily accept instructions from vehicles, we suggest the use of social rules, such as politeness, in human-vehicle interaction. In a 2 × 2 between-subjects experiment, we test the effects of vehicle politeness (plain vs. polite) on drivers’ interaction experiences in two operation situations (normal vs. failure). The results indicate that vehicle politeness improves interaction experience in normal working situations but impedes the experience in failure situations. Specifically, in normal situations, vehicles with polite instructions are highly evaluated for social presence, politeness, satisfaction and intention to use. Theoretical and practical implications on politeness research and speech interaction design are discussed.