Come Fly With Me: Investigating the Effects of Path Visualizations in Automated Urban Air Mobility

Automated Urban Air Mobility will enhance passenger transportation in metropolitan areas in the near future. Potential passengers, however, have little knowledge about this mobility form. Therefore, there could be concerns about safety and low trust. As trajectories are essential information to address these concerns, we evaluated seven path visualizations in an online video-based study (N=99). We found that a path line visualization was rated highest for trust and perceived safety. In a follow-up virtual reality study (N=24), we evaluated the effects of this visualization and of other air traffic flying by. We found that the participants looked at the path line more often when other air traffic was present and that the path line increased trust and predictability of the air taxi's future path.