Using gamification to motivate human cooperation in a lane-change scenario

Abstract

This paper suggests a concept for motivating driver cooperation. The proposed interaction concept incorporates gamification to motivate cooperation in a lane-change scenario in a highly automated environment. Prior research has shown that without taking individual factors such as time pressure or social status into account, cooperation-acceptance rates were as high as 88% for the left-lane and 100% for the right-lane scenario [1]. Assuming that it influences cooperative behavior, we added time pressure to the experimental setting in this study. We developed and implemented a motivational trade-off concept to counteract an expected drop in acceptance rates for lane-change cooperation under time pressure. Experimental conditions with and without the trade-off concept were tested in a driving-simulator experiment and the results were compared to those of the prior study. They confirmed the drop in acceptance rates under time pressure for the left-lane perspective; however, introducing the concept increased acceptance rates for the left-lane, and decreased them for the right-lane perspective. Using the gamified concept, drivers form cooperative strategies and trade time for points-which equals the unbalanced lane change. Besides being motivational, the trade-off concept is able to shape cooperative behavior.