Shared intention and shared awareness for conditional automated driving: An online, randomized video experiment.

Area of Science:

• Human-computer interaction
• Automated vehicle safety
• Driver monitoring systems

Background:

• Conditional automation in vehicles requires drivers to remain vigilant.
• Current systems lack information on vehicle intentions and threat awareness.
• This gap impacts driver performance and safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate two human-machine interaction (HMI) concepts for automated vehicles (AVs).
• To assess the impact of shared intended pathway (SIP) and object recognition bounding boxes (ORBBs) on driver experience.
• To investigate effects on trust, situational awareness, stress, and user acceptance.

Main Methods:

• An online experiment tested two HMI designs: SIP only, and SIP with ORBBs.
• 394 participants viewed videos of AV driving scenarios under three conditions: no HMI, SIP only, SIP + ORBBs.
• Post-video questionnaires measured trust, situational awareness, stress, and technology acceptance model (TAM) variables.

Main Results:

• Shared intended pathway (SIP) significantly reduced stress and increased perceived usefulness and future intentions to use AVs.
• Object recognition bounding boxes (ORBBs) also enhanced perceived usefulness and intentions to use AVs.
• Perceived ease of use and usefulness positively predicted future intentions to use AVs, supporting the TAM.

Conclusions:

• SIP shows promise for improving driver monitoring in conditional automation.
• Both SIP and ORBBs can enhance user experience and acceptance of AVs.
• Further on-road testing is recommended for ecological validity and to refine HMI displays.