Autonomous vehicles are becoming a reality with great potential. However, persons with blindness, deafblindness, and deafness, who usually receive information and guidance from the driver, could miss information when travelling in an autonomous car. In this case study, 15 people with hearing and vision impairments explore and compare trips with and without vibrotactile guidance (using Ready-Ride or Ready-Move) in a simulated autonomous vehicle in real traffic (using a Wizard-of-Oz method). The study investigated if vibrotactile aid could enable persons with blindness, deafblindness, and deafness to use autonomous vehicles. Different phases of a trip (before, during, and after) were analysed. The study shows that people with functional impairments such as blindness, deafblindness, and deafness can perform trips independently if given information adapted to their needs through auditory, tactile, or visual information channels. It would be difficult for the target groups to travel without any additional communication aid, such as a vibrotactile guidance aid for all phases of the trip, especially for those with blindness. In all rides with the simulated autonomous car (Wizard-of-Oz set up) without vibrotactile guidance, the driver or assistant (in at least one phase of the trip) had to intervene for the research participants with blindness to complete the trip and continue the study. The study also highlights the usability of the vibrotactile guidance aid and identifies areas in need of improvement.

How to ensure trust and societal acceptance of automated vehicles (AVs) is a widely-discussed topic today. While trust and acceptance could be influenced by a range of factors, one thing is sure: the ability of AVs to safely and smoothly interact with other road users will play a key role. Based on our experiences from a series of studies, this paper elaborates on issues that AVs may face in interactions with other road users and whether external vehicle interfaces could support these interactions. Our overall conclusion is that such interfaces may be beneficial in situations where negotiation is needed. However, these benefits, and potential drawbacks, need to be further explored to create a common language, or standard, for how AVs should communicate with other road users.

While traffic signals, signs, and road markings provide explicit guidelines for those operating in and around the roadways, some decisions, such as determinations of "who will go first," are made by implicit negotiations between road users. In such situations, pedestrians are today often dependent on cues in drivers' behavior such as eye contact, postures, and gestures. With the introduction of more automated functions and the transfer of control from the driver to the vehicle, pedestrians cannot rely on such non-verbal cues anymore. To study how the interaction between pedestrians and automated vehicles (AVs) might look like in the future, and how this might be affected if AVs were to communicate their intent to pedestrians, we designed an external vehicle interface called automated vehicle interaction principle (AVIP) that communicates vehicles' mode and intent to pedestrians. The interaction was explored in two experiments using a Wizard of Oz approach to simulate automated driving. The first experiment was carried out at a zebra crossing and involved nine pedestrians. While it focused mainly on assessing the usability of the interface, it also revealed initial indications related to pedestrians' emotions and perceived safety when encountering an AV with/without the interface. The second experiment was carried out in a parking lot and involved 24 pedestrians, which enabled a more detailed assessment of pedestrians' perceived safety when encountering an AV, both with and without the interface. For comparison purposes, these pedestrians also encountered a conventional vehicle. After a short training course, the interface was deemed easy for the pedestrians to interpret. The pedestrians stated that they felt significantly less safe when they encountered the AV without the interface, compared to the conventional vehicle and the AV with the interface. This suggests that the interface could contribute to a positive experience and improved perceived safety in pedestrian encounters with AVs - something that might be important for general acceptance of AVs. As such, this topic should be further investigated in future studies involving a larger sample and more dynamic conditions.

The introduction of autonomous vehicles (autonomous vehicles) will reshape the many social interactions that are part of traffic today. In order for autonomous vehicles to become successfully integrated, the social interactions surrounding them need to be purposefully designed. To ensure success and save development efforts, design methods that explore social aspects in early design phases are needed to provide conceptual directions before committing to concrete solutions. This paper contributes an exploration of methods for addressing the social aspects of autonomous vehicles in three key areas: the vehicle as a social entity in traffic, co-experience within the vehicle and the user–vehicle relationship. The methods explored include Wizard of Oz, small-scale scenarios, design metaphors, enactment and peer-to-peer interviews. These were applied in a workshop setting with 18 participants from academia and industry. The methods provided interesting design seeds, however with differing effectiveness. The most promising methods enabled flexible idea exploration, but in a contextualized and concrete manner through tangible objects and enactment to stage future use situations. Further, combinations of methods that enable a shift between social perspectives were preferred. Wizard of Oz and small-scale scenarios were found fruitful as collaboration basis for multidisciplinary teams, by establishing a united understanding of the problem at hand.

This paper presents a large-scale simulator study on driver adherence to recommendations given by driver support systems, specifically eco-driving support and navigation support. 123 participants took part in this study, and drove a vehicle simulator through a pre-defined environment for a duration of approximately 10 min. Depending on the experimental condition, participants were either given no eco-driving recommendations, or a system whose provided support was either basic (recommendations were given in the form of an icon displayed in a manner that simulates a heads-up display) or informative (the system additionally displayed a line of text justifying its recommendations). A navigation system that likewise provided either basic or informative support, depending on the condition, was also provided. Effects are measured in terms of estimated simulated fuel savings as well as engine braking/coasting behaviour and gear change efficiency. Results indicate improvements in all variables. In particular, participants who had the support of an eco-driving system spent a significantly higher proportion of the time coasting. Participants also changed gears at lower engine RPM when using an eco-driving support system, and significantly more so when the system provided justifications. Overall, the results support the notion that providing reasons why a support system puts forward a certain recommendation improves adherence to it over mere presentation of the recommendation. Finally, results indicate that participants’ driving style was less eco-friendly if the navigation system provided justifications but the eco-system did not. This may be due to participants considering the two systems as one whole rather than separate entities with individual merits. This has implications for how to design and evaluate a given driver support system since its effectiveness may depend on the performance of other systems in the vehicle.

Methods and metrics for studying interactions between automated vehicles and other road users in their vicinity, such as pedestrians, cyclists and non-automated vehicles, are not established yet. This workshop focuses on identifying the strengths and weaknesses of various methodologies that could potentially be used to study such interactions. The objective lies in determining the proper experimental design, sensitivity of metrics for measuring user behavior, ecological validity, generalizability of findings, extraction of insights regarding how findings can be translated into actionable requirements, and the alternatives for conducting longitudinal field studies. It will be of an interactive nature and involve hands-on activities. The workshop will consolidate existing knowledge, identify recurring issues, and explore the path towards resolving these issues. The outcome will be compiled into a paper to share this valuable knowledge with a broader research community.

Automated driving systems will be severely challenged in the unpredictable conditions of mixed traffic. Consequently, some form of human support remains essential in the foreseeable future. This challenge is especially true for Shared Automated Vehicles (SAVs), as these vehicles will likely not include any human driver on-board. When an SAV will encounter a scenario it cannot handle, a remote human operator will need to intervene and help the vehicle and its passengers. In this study a user-centred design approach is used to study whether a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) interface can support such operators and provide them with additional spatial awareness. Two prototypes (an HMD and a computer display) are developed and evaluated using pre-recorded real-world scenarios. Twelve participants assessed three possible scenarios a remote operator may encounter. Among participants, the study found evidence of strong implicit spatial awareness when using an HMD interface.

Trådlös, induktiv, laddning skulle kunna ge elbilar ytterligare en, och kanskeavgörande, fördel gentemot fossilbränsledrivna genom att användarna i principaldrig behöver åka någonstans för att ”tanka”. Istället laddas bilarna enkelt ochbekvämt trådlöst utan sladd när de står parkerade.Teknologin i sig är inte komplicerad men tillämpningen för fordon i verklighetenär fortfarande i sin linda. Det finns därför behov av att förstå såväl de praktiskasom tekniska svårigheterna hur verkliga användare utnyttjar och upplever den nyatekniken. Av denna anledning initierades WiCh-projektet 2012 efter en förstudiesom förutsättningslöst studerade lämpliga lösningar för bekväm laddning.Projektet har, i världens fortfarande största enskilda fältstudie avinduktionsladdning, utrustat 20 personbilar i kommunal och enskild verksamhetoch följt upp användningen under ett och ett halvt års tid. Resultaten av studienvisar att trådlös laddning kan vara attraktiv jämfört med laddning med sladd, ochatt ladd-beteendet sannolikt kommer att förändras med trådlös laddning.Utrustningen levererades av den enda leverantör som finns på den öppnamarknaden, amerikanska Evatran Group. För att få tillstånd till en fältstudie iSverige genomfördes ett antal tekniska prov vilka också gav viktig kunskap tilltestorganisationer och tillståndsgivande myndigheter.

Wireless, inductive, charging could give electric cars yet another, and perhapsfinal, advantage compared with fossil driven cars: that you in principle never haveto drive somewhere to re-fuel. Instead the cars are being charged wheneverparked.The technology itself is not complicated but the application for vehicles in realuse is still in an early phase. Therefore, there is a need to understand both thepractical and technical difficulties how real drivers use and perceive the newtechnology. Therefore, the WiCh-project was initiated after the completion of aprevious feasibility study that unconditionally studied appropriate solutions forconvenient charging.The project has, in what today still is the world’s largest single field trial ofinduction charging, equipped 20 passenger cars in municipality and private useand then studied the usage during a period of one and a half years. The resultsshow that wireless charging can be attractive compared to cable charging and thatthe charging behaviour most likely will change with wireless charging. Thecharging equipment was acquired from the only supplier available on the openmarket, Evatran Group from the U.S.A. To get approval for a field trial in Swedenseveral technical tests were undertaken, which also built important knowledge fortesting organisations and authorities.

For safety reasons, autonomous vehicles should communicate their intent rather than explicitly invitepeople to act. At RISE Viktoria in Sweden, we believe this simple design principle will impact howautonomous vehicles are experienced in the future