Rules of conduct for autonomous vehicles

When developing autonomous vehicles, we should not only focus on technology development but also think about what behaviour to program into such vehicles. This paper addresses the question of whether we should enable users to influence the politeness of autonomous vehicles. A survey was conducted with 58 participants to probe people's willingness to display polite traffic behaviour. Scenarios were shown to people in which the weather conditions and the vulnerability of road users were manipulated, and people were asked to indicate whether they would give right of way or not. It was found that the willingness to give right of way was influenced by the weather conditions, the vulnerability of road users and the driving style of the participants. We conclude that traffic politeness varies across people and situations, and that this finding raises concerns for a development where autonomous vehicles are equipped with a standard uniform behaviour.