Explainable Artificial Intelligence Techniques for Enhancing Interpretability and Trustworthiness in Autonomous Vehicle Decision Making Systems

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are revolutionizing transportation by relying on advanced AI techniques like deep learning and reinforcement learning for decision-making and navigation. However, concerns about the opacity of traditional AI models in safety-critical applications such as autonomous driving raise issues related to safety, accountability, and trust. This study explores the integration of Explainable AI (XAI) techniques in AV systems to enhance transparency and interpretability while maintaining high prediction accuracy. XAI methods, such as LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations) and SHAP (SHapley Additive ExPlanations), provide understandable justifications for AI-driven decisions, addressing biases, fairness, and accountability. These techniques also support regulatory compliance and foster public trust in AVs. A mixed-methods approach, combining experimental simulations and user surveys, was employed to integrate XAI into AV systems and test its performance in urban traffic and highway driving scenarios. Feedback from users, collected through questionnaires and in-depth interviews, revealed that XAI-enhanced systems significantly improved the interpretability of AV decisions, leading to higher user trust and satisfaction. The study highlights the importance of balancing model complexity with interpretability, demonstrating that XAI techniques are crucial for building trust and ensuring accountability in autonomous driving systems.