Self-driving technology, like cars that drive themselves, is growing fast. Researchers have argued that this changes how we live with smart machines. We’ll have to share space with machines in traffic. Sometimes, what we want clashes with what these machines need to do.

We cannot avoid these interactions. Even if you do not own a self-driving car, you will meet them on the road. This shift brings new challenges. People and machines must figure out how to get along. A study from researchers at LMU Munich and Waseda University in Tokyo, published in Scientific Reports, explores this.

The researchers tested how people act with cooperative machines versus humans. Cooperative means willing to help others. They used game theory, a method to study choices, in experiments. Participants from Japan and the United States faced a decision: act selfishly or cooperate. When playing against a machine, people often chose selfishness. “Cutting off a robot doesn’t hurt its feelings,” note the researchers.

Cultural differences in automation

The study showed something surprising. People in the United States and Europe exploit robots more than people in Japan do. Exploit means taking advantage of someone or something. In the West, guilt stops people from mistreating humans but not machines. Guilt is feeling bad about doing wrong. In Japan, people feel guilt whether they mistreat a person or a kind robot. This affects how cultures might use self-driving cars. In Japan, where robots get respect, autonomous taxis could thrive sooner.

“If people in Japan treat robots with the same respect as humans,” researcher Jurgis Karpus says in an LMU press release, “fully autonomous taxis might take off in Tokyo long before they become the norm in Berlin, London, or New York.”

These findings hint at automation’s future. How we treat smart machines could decide where they succeed first. Japan’s respect for robots might lead the way. Meanwhile, Western habits of exploiting machines could slow progress. Our daily choices at intersections may shape tomorrow’s roads.

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