Improving Usefulness of Automated Driving by Lowering Primary Task Interference through HMI Design

Abstract

During conditionally automated driving (CAD), driving time can be used for non-driving-related tasks (NDRTs). To increase safety and comfort of an automated ride, upcoming automated manoeuvres such as lane changes or speed adaptations may be communicated to the driver. However, as the driver's primary task consists of performing NDRTs, they might prefer to be informed in a nondistracting way. In this paper, the potential of using speech output to improve human-automation interaction is explored. A sample of 17 participants completed different situations which involved communication between the automation and the driver in a motion-based driving simulator. The Human-Machine Interface (HMI) of the automated driving system consisted of a visualauditory HMI with either generic auditory feedback (i.e., standard information tones) or additional speech output. The drivers were asked to perform a common NDRT during the drive. Compared to generic auditory output, communicating upcoming automated manoeuvres additionally by speech led to a decrease in self-reported visual workload and decreased monitoring of the visual HMI. However, interruptions of the NDRT were not affected by additional speech output. Participants clearly favoured the HMI with additional speech-based output, demonstrating the potential of speech to enhance usefulness and acceptance of automated vehicles.

Information Needs and Visual Attention during Urban, Highly Automated Driving—An Investigation of Potential Influencing Factors

“…In particular, the high density of information in urban areas could result in a flood of information in the individual scenarios. In future studies, it should therefore be investigated how this amount of information can be communicated to the passengers without notifying them too often or in a distracting way, since this may be perceived as annoying due to the NDRA being interrupted [12].…”

“…The functional scope of an AV might not be obvious to a driver, and therefore vehicle maneuvers can lead to discomfort or a feeling of being at risk if those maneuvers are not communicated in advance by the system. This results in an increased need of the driver for information; e.g., upcoming maneuver or confidence level of the driving automation system [12]. So far, research has focused on partially automated and conditionally automated driving.…”

“…Additionally, it has been reported that the remaining automated travel distance/time is important [11,[19][20][21]. These information requirements have already been incorporated into the HMI design for partially and conditionally automated driving in numerous studies (e.g., [12,14,[22][23][24]).…”

From HMI to HMIs: Towards an HMI Framework for Automated Driving

“…The instrument cluster is used in almost all studies on automated driving (e.g., [8,[19][20][21][22]). In addition, head-up displays have become established that can inform passengers in the primary field of view about system status, emerging situations, and maneuvers without eyes off road (e.g., [8,19,[23][24][25]). Augmented reality head-up displays, as an extension of conventional head-up displays, have been used in automated driving because they visualize maneuvers, mark detected objects directly in the environment (e.g., [23,26,27]) and can support the driver in take-over situations (e.g., [28,29]).…”

Maintain situation awareness in semi-autonomous driving with a haptic seat

“…Les interactions haptiques sont donc intéressantes pour transmettre des informations relatives à l'environnement du conducteur. Elles pourraient permettre de proposer des interactions multimodales autres que audiovisuelles ( [13], [9]). Afin de transmettre ces informations, il est possible de faire varier différents paramètres [7] : l'intensité des vibrations (fréquence et amplitude), le choix des profils de vibrations, distance entre les vibrations (minimum 8 cm pour le dos et 9 cm pour l'assise) et leur position.…”