The way drivers operate in-car systems is rapidly changing as traditional physical controls, such as buttons and dials, are being replaced by touchscreens and touch-sensing surfaces. This has the potential to increase driver distraction and error as controls may be harder to find and use. This paper presents an in-car, on the road driving study which examined three key types of input controls to investigate their effects: a physical dial, pressure-based input on a touch surface and touch input on a touchscreen. The physical dial and pressure-based input were also evaluated with and without haptic feedback. The study was conducted with users performing a list-based targeting task using the different controls while driving on public roads. Eye-gaze was recorded to measure distraction from the primary task of driving. The results showed that target accuracy was high across all input methods (greater than 94%). Pressurebased targeting was the slowest while directly tapping on the targets was the faster selection method. Pressure-based input also caused the largest number of glances towards to the touchscreen but the duration of each glance was shorter than directly touching the screen. Our study will enable designers to make more appropriate design choices for future in-car interactions.

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User demand for seamless touch interfaces in cars is ever increasing. The European project HAPPINESS targets the introduction of haptic feedback on touch surfaces with printed actuators. Initial user studies were conducted at Bosch to define requirements for virtual haptic push buttons and the proper layout of touchscreen controls. Author KeywordsHMI; touch interfaces; haptics; user technologies Objective and BackgroundOver the last years, the automotive dashboard has changed tremendously due to the enormous increase of functions that drivers can control while driving, e.g. [1]. While it was common to add a new control when introducing new functionalitiespredominantly with a 1-to-1-mapping -this is obviously no longer suitable in current cars [2]. User demand for aesthetically pleasing and seamless interfaces is ever increasing, with touch sensitive interfaces to interact with multifunctional systems now being commonplace, e.g. [3].The loss of mechanical feedback, which is a consequence of the displacement of real physical controls with virtual controls, leads to a reduced interaction quality and user experience. Even more important are safety concerns arising from the increased need to shift gazes towards the infotainment system in order to visually capture control elements. The vital approach to address these concerns is thus to enrich touch screens with haptic feedback in a way that enables eyes-free capturing of controls with the sense of touch.The goal of the research project HAPPINESS (Haptic Printed and Patterned Interfaces for Sensitive Surfaces), funded by the European Commission under the H2020 program, is to replace mechanical components and take advantage of touch technology with printed TOLAE (thin and organic large area electronics) technologies, while restoring haptic feedback and achieving an integrated product directly assembled for the final manufacturer. To achieve and promote this goal, the HAPPINESS project will demonstrate a small-scale prototype of an automotive dashboard with touch sensing and realistic, multi-facetted haptic feedback capabilities.Several concepts to haptify virtual UI (user interface) control elements have been presented prior to the HAPPINESS project, with a strong focus on haptifying push buttons [4], which are considered as the primary UI control element for touch based interaction. The most mature approach to date is to actuate the complete display with a moving mass actuator mounted behind the display. While this approach has some constraints that motivate the HAPPINESS project, it is well suited to analyze user requirements on haptic feedback design.As stated previously, one of the main goals of the haptification of virtual in-vehicle touch controls is the reduction of visual driver distraction, i.e. enabling drivers to capture control elements without having to look at them. To achieve this goal, a simplified model of user touch screen interaction is developed, leading to a holistic approach of virtual button haptification. A first user study was conducted ...