This study explores the relationship between the perceived intelligence of robots and individuals’ willingness to use them, focusing on the mediating role of trust and the moderating role of self-efficacy. A total of 462 Chinese adults participated in the study. They completed four assessments: the Godspeed Questionnaire (GQS), the Willingness to Integrate Service Robots Scale (WISRS), the Social Service Robot Interaction Trust (SSRIT) Scale, and the Self-Efficacy in Human-Robot Interaction Scale (SE-HRI). Results revealed that perceived intelligence positively predicts willingness to use robots. Trust was found to mediate the relationship. Moreover, self-efficacy moderated both the direct association between perceived intelligence and willingness to use robots, as well as the indirect mediating effect of trust. The findings offer provided novel insights to understand the mechanism of willingness to adopt robots.

With the development of augmented reality (AR) technology, AR navigation tools have gradually received increasing attention. Few previous studies have comprehensively discussed the advantages and disadvantages of AR and 2D maps from a spatial cognition perspective. Through three experiments, this article investigated the effects of different AR navigation display methods on wayfinding performance and spatial knowledge acquisition. First, we compared participants’ performances in using AR and 2D map navigation aids for wayfinding and spatial knowledge tasks. Second, we developed a combined map and compared the usability of this map with that of an AR map. Then, we applied the focus + context technique to improve the combined map’s minimap and verified the improved map’s effectiveness by laboratory simulation. The AR map is superior to the 2D map in acquiring spatial knowledge. AR displays are crucial for helping individuals acquire landmark and route knowledge. The improved map expands the range of exocentric spatial information and highlights the landmark locations to provide comprehensive information about the environment; thus, the improved map can further assist in acquiring spatial knowledge.

Augmented reality head-up display (AR HUD) is a new technology in assisted driving, which can add extra information to the driving environment in real-time to help the driver better perceive road situation. AR HUD can enhance driving safety but may also encourage inattentional blindness. Hence, this study aims to examine whether AR HUD-induces inattentional blindness and determine whether workload intensifies their relationship. In experiment 1, 60 participants were randomly assigned to three groups and watched three types of augmented reality (AR)-augmented driving videos, respectively. They were instructed to respond to any critical events, but only their responses to road-crossing pedestrians were recorded. Results show that AR HUD reduces inattentional blindness when pedestrians are augmented but encourages inattentional blindness when pedestrians are not augmented. In experiment 2, 20 participants viewed AR-augmented driving videos of high and low workloads. Pedestrians were not augmented in all videos. Result reveals that a high workload induces more inattentional blindness than low workload. The finding confirms that AR HUD induces inattentional blindness, and a high workload will intensify this relationship. The future design of the AR HUD assisted-driving system should consider the risk of inattentional blindness and come up with corresponding countermeasures.

This study aims to investigate the usability of a head-up display (HUD) in presenting warning messages during driving and create a new and effective vehicle early warning system for drivers. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, 36 drivers were randomly assigned to a group using HUD and a control group. The simulated driving performance of the two groups was compared to determine if the HUD graphic early warning system facilitates driving safety. Results revealed that the HUD-using group demonstrated better driving performance than the control group in terms of collision, mean deceleration, accelerator release reaction time, brake reaction time, reduced velocity, reduced energy, steering reaction time, mean reaction time, and minimum reaction time. We investigated the influence of the presentation mode of warning messages on simulated driving performance in Experiment 2. Forty-eight drivers were randomly assigned to an HUD warning group, an audio warning group, and an audiovisual group that integrated HUD and audio warning. The drivers in the HUD warning group performed better than those in the two other groups in terms of mean deceleration. The audiovisual group that integrated HUD and audio warning showed an advantage in reduced velocity. The findings indicated that HUD technology has the potential to promote safe driving by improving the early warning system.