With Lynne Baillie, Martin Halvey, and Roderick McCall.
Motivation
Automated (self-driving) vehicles are considered to be the future of personal transport. On a personal level, automated vehicle technology aims to offer greater freedoms to the driver, such as the ability to undertake non-driving tasks with minimal safety risk. This newly granted freedom may be favourable as the vehicle becomes a new paradigm for interaction design. Automation seeks to replace the driver with intermediate computerised control systems. This relegates the driver to a supervisory role where they simply monitor the systems operating the vehicle. As vehicular automation technology continues to advance, the shift from manual to supervisory control must be appropriately mediated to bridge the gap between driver and vehicle. This work investigated how an auditory display designed to provide a perceived sense of control to drivers can effectively mediate the control shift brought about by vehicle automation.
Conference Papers
Exploring how drivers perceive spatial earcons in automated vehicles
Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies
Abstract
Automated vehicles seek to relieve the human driver from primary driving tasks, but this substantially diminishes the
connection between driver and vehicle compared to manual operation. At present, automated vehicles lack any form of continual, appropriate feedback to re-establish this connection and offer a feeling of control. We suggest that auditory feedback can be used to support the driver in this context. A preliminary field study that explored how drivers respond to existing auditory feedback in manual vehicles was first undertaken. We then designed a set of abstract, synthesised sounds presented spatially around the driver, known as Spatial Earcons, that represented different primary driving sounds e.g. acceleration. To evaluate their effectiveness, we undertook a driving simulator study in an outdoor setting using a real vehicle. Spatial Earcons performed as well as Existing Vehicle Sounds during automated and manual driving scenarios. Subjective responses suggested Spatial Earcons produced an engaging driving experience. This paper argues that entirely new synthesised primary driving sounds, such as Spatial Earcons, can be designed for automated vehicles to replace
Existing Vehicle Sounds. This creates new possibilities for presenting primary driving information in automated vehicles using auditory feedback, in order to re-establish a connection between driver and vehicle.
PDF: Exploring How Drivers Perceive Spatial Earcons in Automated Vehicles
A comparison of artificial driving sounds for automated vehicles
Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing
Abstract
As automated vehicles currently do not provide sufficient feedback relating to the primary driving task, drivers have no assurance that an automated vehicle has understood and can cope with upcoming traffic situations [16]. To address this we conducted two user evaluations to investigate auditory displays in automated vehicles using different types of sound cues related to the primary driving sounds: acceleration, deceleration/braking, gear changing and indicating. Our first study compared earcons, speech and auditory icons with existing vehicle sounds. Our findings suggested that earcons were an effective alternative to existing vehicle sounds for presenting information related
to the primary driving task. Based on these findings a second study was conducted to further investigate earcons modulated by different sonic parameters to present primary driving sounds. We discovered that earcons containing naturally mapped sonic parameters such as pitch and timbre were as effective as existing sounds in a simulated automated vehicle.
PDF: A Comparison of Artificial Driving Sounds for Automated Vehicles
Adapting SatNav to meet the demands of future automated vehicles
CHI 2015 Workshop on Experiencing Autonomous Vehicles: Crossing the Boundaries Between a Drive and a Ride
Abstract
This paper questions whether satellite navigation systems (SatNav) in their current form will be useful in future automated vehicles. We highlight the current challenges to the design of SatNav systems and point out how aspects of these may no longer be essential during the transition towards more highly automated vehicles. Finally we pose a number of research questions that may be helpful to understand the evolution of SatNav systems in automated vehicles.
PDF: Adapting SatNav to meet the demands of future automated vehicles
What’s around the corner? Enhancing driver awareness in autonomous vehicles via in-vehicle spatial auditory displays
Proceedings of the 8th nordic conference on human-computer interaction: fun, fast, foundational
Abstract
There is currently a distinct lack of design consideration associated with autonomous vehicles and their impact on human factors. Research has yet to consider fully the impact felt by the driver when he/she is no longer in control of the vehicle [12]. We propose that spatialised auditory feedback could be used to enhance driver awareness to the intended actions of autonomous vehicles. We hypothesise that this feedback will provide drivers with an enhanced sense of control. This paper presents a driving simulator study where 5 separate auditory feedback methods are compared during both autonomous and manual driving scenarios. We found that our spatialised auditory presentation method alerted drivers to the intended actions of autonomous vehicles much more than all other methods and they felt significantly more in control during scenarios containing sound vs. no sound. Finally, that overall workload in autonomous vehicle scenarios was lower compared to manual vehicle scenarios.
PDF: What’s Around the Corner? Enhancing Driver Awareness in Autonomous Vehicles via In-Vehicle Spatial Auditory Displays
Maintaining a sense of control in autonomous vehicles via auditory feedback
Perceptual Quality of Systems 4tb Workshop
Abstract
This paper presents the findings from an observational field study conducted with 8 car drivers. The study attempted to create a taxonomy of sounds that present information to people whilst driving. We also aimed to determine whether participants noticed these sounds as they occurred and whether they paid attention to them. Furthermore, we asked the participants subjective questions regarding particular sonic attributes and their ability to catch driver’s attention. It was concluded that although certain sounds occur regularly, differing levels of attention are given to each depending on the information they present. Our study also revealed that while all sonic attributes play an impact in catching driver’s attention, some aspects are more noticeable than others. We conclude with a discussion of our future directions with regards to the findings obtained from our observational field study and outline the plan for our next study.
PDF: Maintaining a sense of control in autonomous vehicles via auditory feedback