Assessing social driving behavior

Abstract

Recent advances in Artificial Intelligence are making automated vehicles an ever closer reality. However, we should expect a period when full or partial autonomous vehicles and ordinary cars coexist, during which it would be essential to fully understand the cognitive processes used by ordinary people when driving. Our work attempt to progress in this direction, by designing a system for assessing when and why subjects resort to costly social processes, rather than using quick and automated reactions. In particular, it will be crucial to assess when drivers use mentalizing abilities, in addition to paying attention to other people by means of simpler automated sensorimotor control processes. In our experimental design we investigate the main precursors of mindreading, that is, eye contact and shared attention.