Towards Trustworthy Autonomous Ground Vehicles Design in Nigeria

Artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) must be safely integrated into societies to fulfil their potential. This presents challenges to vehicle designers and regulators alike because many societies have varying road norms that shape road users’ interactions and ensure their safety. For assured safety on use, AGVs must be designed to operate safely and communicate appropriately with other road users or agents – this requires considering relevant local environments in their design. Most research informing this design focus on Western and Asian road environments, which differ considerably from the conditions in most of Africa. This paper presents work aiming to fill this gap in the literature through an exploration of trust, human values, practices, behaviors, communication, and interactions in Nigerian roads. We collected qualitative data about 50+ road users’ lived experiences over 7 months in two Nigerian cities using contextual inquiry, observation, autoethnography, and interviews. Insights from this research will be used to model the Nigerian road system, on-road trust, and to define and prototype AGVs design requirements for Nigeria. This work may also contribute to the design of other AI systems in Africa – especially where considerations of trust dynamics are important for ensuring their safe and responsible adoption.