Much research is dependent on the willingness of participants to give up their time – whether renumerated or not – and engage with the activities we have designed such as interviews, surveys, writing diaries, and taking photos. We talk about social research being dependent on ‘self-selection’, but we say less about what happens when the people with whom we wish to engage do not agree to do so; when we are unable to get the insights we need to answer our research questions or respond to our research aims. In this Viewpoint, we discuss three interconnected methodological themes: locating and accessing participants, participant self-selection and identification in the context of the research, and topical fatigue. We discuss these themes in relation to recent developments in transport and the rise of autonomous vehicles in particular.

许多研究取决于参与者是否愿意放弃他们的时间——无论是否有报酬——并参与我们设计的活动，如采访、调查、写日记和拍照。我们谈论社会研究依赖于“自我选择”，但我们很少提及当我们希望与之接触的人不同意这样做时会发生什么；当我们无法获得回答我们的研究问题或回应我们的研究目标所需的见解时。在这个观点中，我们讨论了三个相互关联的方法论主题：定位和访问参与者、研究背景下的参与者自我选择和识别，以及主题疲劳。我们讨论这些主题与最近的交通发展，尤其是自动驾驶汽车的兴起有关。