MULTI-CUE: A comparative study of motion, verbal and visual cues in automated driving systems (ADS)

Research Project, 2020

An automated driving system (ADS) will need to communicate its intended actions in order to avoid alarming or surprising drivers and other occupants of a vehicle. This communication can take different forms, e.g. motion or haptic cues (for example, sequences of haptic feedbacks in the form of vibrations), visual cues (projected on screen; for instance, pedestrian detection), and verbal cues (spoken voice from an intelligent agent). It is an open question which of these modes of communication provide the best information transfer (particularly with regards to safety) depending on the context and the individual characteristics of the driver (or occupants).

In this pre-study, we will study some combinations of cues in different contexts, assessing the relative merits regarding safety and other aspects such as riding comfort, fuel efficiency and acceptability. A specific use case is automated driving for fuel efficiency, a case that will involve cues that might not be easily understandable to the occupants of the vehicle.