Driver-passenger collaboration as a basis for human-machine interface design for vehicle navigation systems

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Cognitive Psychology
• Transportation Engineering

Background:

• Current vehicle navigation systems (SatNav) raise Human Factors concerns regarding driver disengagement from the environment.
• Existing Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) may contribute to reduced environmental awareness during driving.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of collaborative navigation on driver environmental and route knowledge.
• To inform the development of intelligent HMIs for in-vehicle navigation systems.
• To explore the potential of driver-passenger dialogue in navigation.

Main Methods:

• An on-road study comparing navigation with a SatNav versus a trained passenger.
• Sixteen drivers used SatNav, and 16 used passenger guidance on a predefined urban route.
• Analysis of navigational errors, landmark recall, and route knowledge.

Main Results:

• No significant difference in the number of navigational errors between SatNav and collaborative navigation groups.
• Drivers using collaborative navigation demonstrated significantly better landmark and route knowledge.
• Individual differences in passenger descriptor use and landmark referencing were observed.

Conclusions:

• Collaborative navigation enhances driver's environmental and route understanding compared to SatNav.
• Future intelligent HMIs could benefit from incorporating principles of collaborative navigation.
• Passenger-based navigation dialogue offers insights into improving HMI design by potentially replacing distance descriptors with landmark references.