An Investigation into the Role of Take-off Signals in Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems Designing Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems for Electric Trucks in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

This research is concerned with designing Acoustic Vehicle Alerting Systems for electric trucks, and more specifically, Volvo Trucks. During this research, a virtual environment was created and the effects of a take-off sound on AVAS was examined. According to the results, adding a take-off sound improves the AVAS greatly and can contribute to an increased level of perceived safety and pleasantness. Moreover, a series of questions in an online questionnaire regarding the potential dangers of the statistically most fatal scenarios were asked of VRUs, in order to examine the knowledge gaps regarding these scenarios. The results of this questionnaire suggest that although the VRUs as a collective exhibit a good understanding of how dangerous each situation is, they failed to recognize the leading cause of fatal accidents involving HGVs and VRUs, namely taking off from a standstill. Moreover, the results of this research show a need for a better understanding of masking as a phenomenon and a need for the governing bodies to take this concept into consideration in order to reduce fatalities caused by the future electric vehicles. To summarize, the research team of this thesis investigates: 1. the road users understanding of dangerous scenarios in traffic compared to the statistics generated by Volvo Truck & Swedish National Road Agency 2. how can a Virtual environment be an alternative & cost-effective solution to get a better understanding of the target group for a new feature/product and also be used to prototype new features/products in the automotive industry. 3. Gather user insight for a new feature in AVAS for electric trucks, a take-off sound. 4. Are regulations for Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System sufficient?