What a Driver Wants: User Preferences in Semi-Autonomous Vehicle Decision-Making

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Autonomous vehicle (AV) systems are developing at a rapid pace, not only in technological capabilities, but also in human-centered directions. Despite this development, we lack a nuanced understanding of driver preference in decision scenarios that semi-AVs will face, and of possible misalignment between semi-AV decisions and user preference. Using an online survey, we explore how participants would like semi-AVs to act and alert them of the vehicles' decisions in various scenarios. Participants reported varying levels of comfort with autonomy, desire to takeover control, and desire for AV informing. Individual differences, including level of experience with autonomy and situation awareness, affected perceptions of the vehicle. Our results highlight the importance of considering driver preference in AV decision-making, and we present an influence diagram that situates this factor among others. We also derive five design principles, including that a previous positive AV experience can lead to more harmful consequences for AVs when not aligned with driver preference.