Exploring Women’s Perspectives on Learning and Trust in Automated Vehicles: A Socio-Ecological Lens

As automated vehicles (AVs) move toward mainstream adoption, understanding how users learn about and build trust in them is critical. Prior research shows that women hold safety concerns and report low trust and familiarity with AVs. While limited exposure is often cited as a cause, growing evidence indicates that women’s needs, preferences, and safety priorities remain insufficiently addressed in AV design and governance. We conducted ten dyadic and five individual semi-structured interviews with fifteen women drivers, guided by feminist HCI principles. We then analysed the findings for themes and through a socio-ecological framework to explore trust and learning across individual, interpersonal, institutional, community, and policy levels.