Designing HMIs for Advanced Driver-Assistance Systems

Abstract

Driving safety improves as automakers implement advanced driver assistance sys tems (ADAS) into vehicles. However, these systems can potentially diminish drivers’ situation awareness and negatively affect their mental model of the system. There fore, this thesis aims to understand how human-machine interfaces can be designed to enhance drivers’ situation awareness and facilitate a more accurate mental model. Firstly, a literature study was conducted where design guidelines were identified to improve drivers’ situation awareness and facilitate an accurate mental model of the system. These guidelines informed the design of an HMI concept. Afterward, an interview study was conducted to find criteria for the evaluation of situation awareness in the traffic environment. Subsequently, a 2x2 mixed design experiment was conducted using pre-recorded video clips to evaluate the HMI concept in terms of its impact on drivers’ situation awareness, mental model, perceived awareness, and perceived understanding of the system. Lastly, the final iteration of the HMI concept is presented that aims to alleviate the issues identified in the first iteration during the evaluation. The findings of the evaluation show that the HMI concept has improved participants’ understanding of the system’s intentions and requests. However, no improvements were observed in terms of situation awareness of the external driving environment. This lack of improvement was attributed to the highly distracting nature of the HMI concept. Furthermore, the interview study identified that the information require ments are mostly unique among different driving situations, making it necessary for the HMI to adapt to each situation to support the driver in maintaining their situation awareness of the external driving environment. The results emphasize the importance of display position, display technology, and potential information over load for causing distraction and negatively affecting drivers’ situation awareness of the external traffic environment.