Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are being rapidly introduced into our lives. However, public misunderstanding and mistrust have become prominent issues hindering the acceptance of these driverless technologies. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of a driving simulator to help the public gain an understanding of AVs and build trust in them. To achieve this aim, we built an integrated simulation platform, designed various driving scenarios, and recruited 28 participants for the experiment. The study results indicate that a driving simulator effectively decreases the participants' perceived risk of AVs and increases perceived usefulness. The proposed methodologies and findings of this study can be further explored by auto manufacturers and policymakers to provide user-friendly AV design.

翻译：自动驾驶车辆（AVs）正迅速融入我们的生活。然而，公众的误解与不信任已成为阻碍这些无人驾驶技术被接受的重要问题。本研究的主要目标是评估驾驶仿真器在帮助公众理解自动驾驶车辆并建立对其信任方面的有效性。为实现这一目标，我们构建了一个集成仿真平台，设计了多种驾驶场景，并招募了28名参与者进行实验。研究结果表明，驾驶仿真器能有效降低参与者对自动驾驶车辆的感知风险，并提升感知有用性。本研究提出的方法及发现可被汽车制造商和政策制定者进一步探索，以设计更友好的自动驾驶车辆。