Users’ Understanding of their Role when Cooperating with a Semi-Automated Vehicle: Always Responsible but Sharing Control

Abstract

When the development of semi-automated vehicles increases, as does the demand for efficient cooperation between user and automated system (AS). The common roles and responsibilities are being challenged. Throughout literature, apparent risks with faulty cooperation are often discussed. However, the knowledge of how the potential users will understand these challenged responsibilities is absent.

Therefore, the aim for this thesis project has been to investigate how users understand their responsibilities in a semi-AV (LoA 3) and then formulate user-centered guidelines that could create a foundation for future interface design developments in semi-AV.

This has been done by researching factors affecting responsibility, how these are understood by the user and how it should be designed in AS. The results showed that responsibility could not be shared, neither between humans nor humans and AS. Thus, the user should always have an understanding of constant responsibility, regardless of activated AS and therefore one could draw the conclusion that responsibility in the context of semi-automated vehicles is a non-problem.

However, factors related to responsibility e.g., control can be shared between user and AS. Since semi-automated vehicles are ever changing cooperation, the takeover requests (TOR) are a vital aspect to consider, since they require the user to always act responsible, regardless of if the AS is active or not. Therefore, the concept development aimed to create possible design solutions regarding TOR, by using different levels of system transparency. The final concept proposed an HMI design solution regarding the TORs information and how they should be conceptualized visually, to enable an efficient and safe cooperation between the user and the AS, during use of a semi-automated vehicle.