Investigation of graphical user interfaces for online driving style customization of highly automated vehicles

Abstract

Technological progress in the field of autonomous vehicles may lead to the introduction of such vehicles into traffic in the upcoming decades. However, user acceptance of the technology is an important factor besides the technical possibility of the introduction of the technology. Since driving is a complex task and people drive differently, they may prefer different driving styles of an autonomous vehicle. Giving the users the possibility to adjust and personalize the driving style of their autonomous vehicle might help with the user acceptance and adoption of the technology. For this purpose, we conducted a driving simulator study wit N=11 participants to investigate whether the participants would like to have the possibility to adjust driving style parameters through a graphical human-machine interface. During the experiment the participants experienced a simulated ride in a fully automated vehicle in a dynamic driving simulator and had the possibility to change driving style parameters like the speed or time-headway of the simulated automated vehicle. After the experiment the participants filled out a questionnaire with items about technology acceptance. Overall, the results of the questionnaire suggest that the participants found the HMIs beneficial. Overall, there was an above average rating of 4.38/5.00 that such driving style personalization HMIs are going to support the driver during the vehicle use. By analyzing the experimental data, we found that most of the participants were able to find a suitable set of driving style parameters before the end of the experiment. We hypothesize that the possibility for a user to adjust some driving style parameters may help the adoption of the technology and its user acceptance.