A psychophysiological analysis of a person’s need for information to improve mobility concepts

Abstract

Autonomous driving enables new mobility concepts such as on-demand shared autonomous mobility services. With increasing technological progress in the field of autonomous driving, more attention should be given to the passenger-autonomous vehicle interaction. In the current study, the passengerautonomous vehicle interaction during such an on-demand drive was examined. The study was conducted as a real-world Wizard-of-Oz study in which the passengers were unaware that a driver was controlling the vehicle instead of the vehicle driving autonomously. Each participant was collected from a virtual stop, was driven to a specific destination and driven back to the starting location. On the way back in the vehicle, two unexpected events occurred – an abrupt braking event and an unexpected detour. 19 out of the 37 participants received an error notice followed by content information during or shortly after an event occurred, while the remaining 18 participants only received an error notice during the events. The focus of my thesis is to examine the communication of the automated vehicle to the passenger when unexpected events occur. The psychophysiological data that was gathered during and after the drive in the autonomous vehicle, served to determine a passenger’s information need during the drive. Analyses of the physiological data show a cardiological and electrodermal reaction to event situations – especially during the abrupt braking event. The subjective evaluations served as the main source of insight on a passenger’s wish for information during events and during the whole drive. The results indicate that explanatory information is highly desirable. Furthermore, information has a positive impact on the passengers’ feeling of pleasure, safety and understandability of the vehicle during the drive.