Driving behavior has been trending towards more time in the car and longer commutes. This has fueled the demand for an increasing number of in-vehicle infotainment features, at the cost of the driver splitting attention between the primary task of driving and other secondary tasks. To demonstrate one process we use for generating continuous improvements to the usability of our infotainment systems, we discuss a study where 30 participants were asked to interact with the speech dialogue system of a Volkswagen Group in-vehicle speech system. Participants performed tasks in telephone, navigation, and map contexts. Tasks were timed and videotaped for analysis of three performance measures: 1) Task Completion, 2) Task Time, and 3) participant rating of Task Difficulty. From this analysis, we identified issues that are especially important to the interaction between the system and the driver, which we categorized into a few broad areas: System Organization, Push-To-Talk Functionality, Data Entry, and Speech Commands. Analysis of the issues specific to each category and usability recommendations for each are discussed.

In this demonstration we present a conversational dialog system for automobile drivers. The system provides a voicebased interface to playing music, finding restaurants, and navigating while driving. The design of the system as well as the new technologies developed will be presented. Our evaluation showed that the system is promising, achieving high task completion rate and good user satisfation.

The way we interact with the automobile is changing. New factors in automotive interaction include driver assistance technologies, new media and information options, new power train technologies, environmental concerns, and the introduction of automobiles into emerging markets. In this special interest group session, practitioners and researchers from industry, industrial labs, and academia will discuss several key interaction issues of the automotive environment. These may include personal devices and media, interaction technologies and methods, cognitive load and human factors, and international and cultural factors. Participants will also be able to share their work and recent results in short presentations to other researchers and practitioners. The goal of this session is to establish and reinforce connections between individuals in the academic and industrial communities, open new lines of communication, and foster new partnerships. These collaborations will help create a better understanding of the automotive interaction design space and address important issues in product design, safety, manufacturability, and environmental sustainability.