Data Mining Twitter to Improve Automated Vehicle Safety

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.

Record URL:

Language

English

Project

Status: Active
Funding: $283435
Contract Numbers:
69A3551747115
Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590
Managing Organizations:
Safety through Disruption University Transportation Center

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
Blacksburg, VA United States 24060
Project Managers:
Harwood, Leslie
Performing Organizations:
Texas A&M Transportation Institute

Texas A&M University System
3135 TAMU
College Station, TX United States 77843-3135

Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

3500 Transportation Research Plaza
Blacksburg, Virginia United States 24061
Principal Investigators:
McDonald, Tony
Start Date: 20190301
Expected Completion Date: 20200531
Actual Completion Date: 0
USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

TRT Terms: Attitudes; Autonomous vehicles; Communications; Data mining; Guidelines; Social media; Traffic crashes; Vehicle safety
Identifier Terms: Twitter
Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

Accession Number: 01698761
Record Type: Research project
Source Agency: Safety through Disruption University Transportation Center
Contract Numbers: 69A3551747115
Files: UTC, RiP
Created Date: Mar 12 2019 3:52PM