Prior to the Automotive Tech.AD Berlin, we.CONECT Market Research & Intelligence spoke with Martin Brockmann, EU Project Manager, about the company’s relation to the evolution of ADAS, the biggest hurdles with regards to vehicle automation and possible roles for the driver of the future.
Martin Brockmann: We are providing services for development of smart and integrated HMI concepts. We are supporting activities in the area of Human Factors research for Automated Driving solutions. We have tools and methods for testing and validating HMI concepts with real drivers. By now ADAS and Automation features are neither self-explaining nor easy to use. We advocate simplified controls and display strategies with the emphasis on a safe-to-use driver vehicle interaction concept.
Big question. There is a long list of issues and potential solutions. Just mentioning a few in the area of Human-Vehicle-Interaction:
- Mode awareness: Clear communication of automation and vehicle states to driver and other traffic participants
- Role and task awareness: Design of transitions between automation and manual driving, e.g. over which channels (haptic, acoustic, visual) information shall be communicated in a warning cascade for a take-over request?
- Controllability: Driver or (and) automation are in (shared) control with safe interaction & decision strategies
- Is driver state monitoring necessary? Is it reliably detectable and which are affordable technologies?
In the next years automation might not be available to a full extent in all situations. We know for instance that driver’s expectations disregard the definition of automation levels (SEA). But what solutions can be offered to the driver, which generate a real benefit and are safe and affordable at the same time? What does the Automation allow the driver to do while being driven? How can we provide a unique user experience with a smart control- and display strategy ensuring clear distribution of tasks and roles for driver and automation? Exterior communication of cars is another exciting topic.
In the long run mobility will change entirely. New mobility concepts and business models are inevitable. Interesting are the transition periods of mixed traffic. Will manually driving drivers react differently to automated driving vehicles and e.g. trying to outperform them in daily traffic? Will the driverless vehicle also drive a lot without passengers and increase the traffic load through “unladen journeys”? Much more to discuss here.
If there is - besides destination entry and infotainment demands - any driver-vehicle interaction necessary: The role of the driver changes with the applied level of automation. More important is a clear role definition for the driver: Dos and don’ts, options to switch between automation modes, how to “influence” the automation by driver intervention, communication how the driver can regain control again and so on.
I would love to exchange knowledge, discuss latest trends and insights, have in-depths discussions with other scientists, get to know each other and cultivate contact with one another. Not only with OEMs, and suppliers but also with research organisations, and authorities.