Data Mining Twitter to Improve Automated Vehicle Safety
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Overview
abstract
Automated vehicle technologies may significantly improve driving safety, but only if they are widely adopted and if drivers use them appropriately. Prior work suggests that intentions to adopt new technology and appropriately rely on it are often driven by the user�s expectations. In recent years, these expectations increasingly depend on news presented on social media. For example, recent polls suggest that the majority of Twitter users primarily use the site as a news source. The power of social media in creating and changing expectations suggests that it may be a disruptive tool for increasing the adoption and safe use of automated vehicle technology. In this project, the research team seeks to understand the conversation about automated vehicles on Twitter through a network and natural language processing analysis. The team further focuses on responses and changes of opinion surrounding automated vehicle crashes. These analyses will identify a set of terms, key opinion generators, and hash tags that lead to the most accurate and positive responses to automated vehicles. In the final phase of the project, the team will translate these findings into guidelines for automated vehicle crash responses to help public information officers structure their communications about crashes. Research has shown that avoiding misinformation and structuring communication leads to improved outcomes in emergencies and thus the team expects these guidelines to facilitate automated vehicle safety.
