## 5 Discussion
In accordance with previous findings [21; 62; 71; 72], however, our results show that participants generally report a significantly higher level of trust in automated systems after the automated drive than before. As both the safety driver as well as the automated system avoided safety-critical driving behavior, it is possible that the experienced ADS increased trust regardless of the participants' PDS. The predominantly positive ratings of individual driving situations during the automated drive are in line with this finding. The increase in trust after the automated drive is assessed as low, which may be related to the fact that the questionnaire did not ask about trust in the specific automated driving system, but in automated systems in general. However, Ref. [78] assumes that general trust in a technology correlates with trust in a specific system. It can, therefore, be assumed that the increase in trust is based on the experience with the automated L3 system. Another possible explanation for the low increase in trust might be the generally high affinity for technology and the high trust of participants in automated systems due to their professional proximity to the product. For a different group of participants outside the field of automotive engineering, however, a lower range of values of both characteristics before the automated drive is expected, and thus a higher increase in trust might be seen. The third hypothesis assumed that participants who selected the experienced ADS as their exclusive or one of several preferred driving styles for conditionally automated driving also perceive the experienced ADS as more anthropomorphic compared to participants who selected among the other driving style options. As we found a significantly higher perceived anthropomorphism for participants who selected ADS, H3 could be confirmed. An influence of the estimated percentage of being driven by the automated system on the assessment of anthropomorphism could be rejected as no significant correlation between the two parameters was found. Previous studies have already shown that human-like features can have a positive influence on the perception of automated systems [22; 53; 54]. A higher perceived anthropomorphism can, therefore, also be associated with a more confident driving style and thus increases the tendency of participants to select a presented automated driving style as their preferred driving style for conditionally automated driving. Future studies could further analyze what passengers perceive as human-like driving behavior in an AV and in which situations and scenarios it is especially preferred. Participants who selected ADS also perceived the ADS as significantly safer compared to participants who selected the other driving style options. This result is in line with the findings of previous studies, which have already identified the relevance of safety for trust and acceptance of automated driving systems [24; 25; 79; 80; 81]. No differences were found for Likeability. It is possible that participants found it difficult to transfer the items from human-robot interaction to an automated vehicle. With regard to Intelligence, participants who selected ADS and those selecting the other driving style options showed no difference in the perceived capability of the AV to interact with the environment. However, both groups differed in their evaluation in terms of how the AV interacted in seven specific driving situation categories. The hypothesis that the general assessment of the AV's overall driving strategy and its comprehensibility is rated higher among participants who selected ADS as their preferred driving style could be confirmed. This indicates that driving strategies could be used to align with user preferences. However, it is possible that different driving strategies might not make a difference for users in every scenario or situation, as seen in [21]. It is, therefore, also important to identify situations in which driving strategies have a bigger impact on whether an automated driving style is preferred.