Year: 2007
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Today, in the 21st century, progressively more, computing and communication-based\ntechnologies are being implemented in cars and the complexity of the driver-vehicle\ninterface increases. The consumers are more sophisticated and expecting more content\nin their car with higher levels of quality. They demand features that are smarter, better\ncrafted and easier to use. They expect their vehicle to be safe. To increase safety\nvehicles today will take action to prevent accidents, instead of making the\nconsequences of a possible accident as small as possible.\n \nSafety is the guiding principle for Volvo Car Corporation, preventing accidents;\nthrough active safety systems are among other, important research areas today. The\nnumbers of such systems will most likely increase radically over the coming years as\nthey are seen as very important to stay competitive. So far every system has been\ndeveloped as stand alone functions, which if this continues, will lead to unnecessarily\ncomplex driver environments. The problem addressed in this thesis, is therefore how\nto find a holistic Human Machine Interface (HMI), which gives the driver a clear\noverview and good understanding of the active safety systems. To satisfy more\ndemanding customers, system personalization also needs to be considered as well as\nits interactivity and flexibility.\n \nTo meet these goals and to be able to from a user-centered approach develop a design\nsolution we had to through literature study find out; which theories to use to be able to\nunderstand driver behaviour and how that influences safety in driving, and what\ninfluences the driver in the context of driving. Further we needed to find out which\ndemands there are for HMI in cars, to be able to design for safe interaction and\nusability. To understand driver behaviours and their relation to in-vehicle systems, we\ncarried out semi structured interviews and questionnaires. The results concerning the\ndrivers’ relation to in-vehicle systems show that most of the drivers do not personally\nadjust the systems in the car, more than very occasionally, at the same time the\nmajority would like the opportunity to do so for the feeling of control.\n \nThe result we gained from the study were interpreted and specified into user\nrequirements. These requirements together with our literature background and a\ncompetitor analysis were the base to development of two simple prototypes. These\nprototypes were evaluated with the users, to ensure that the requirements in the\ncontext of driving were fulfilled. The results from the evaluation were used to further\nevolve our design into a final interactive design solution.\n \nThe conclusions of our study is summarized in statements describing how an\nintegrated and flexible HMI, for active safety systems, together with an intuitive\ninteraction could be designed to meet the consumers and the markets increasing\ndemands of today.
Authors: Karin E. Lövsund, Andreas J. Wiberg
Language: English
Subfield: Human Factors and Ergonomics
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2128283285