Mixed-Reality Driver-Car Interaction from Manual to Autonomous Driving

The challenges in driver-car interaction are changing slowly but surely through the ongoing increase in driving automation. At the same time, advances in technologies for vehicular displays are expanding the possibilities for information visualization. This work addresses the different challenges from manual to highly automated driving by leveraging concepts of augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR). Based on a specifically created MR driving simulator, it makes use of immersive simulations of anticipated AR-capable vehicular display devices.

This work presents and examines novel augmentation-based interfaces for presently possible and future stages of driving automation, including a transparent cockpit system, an augmented-reality take-over assistant, and an explanatory windshield display interface for highly automated urban driving. A series of elaborate driving experiments conducted in an immersive virtual environment reveals various positive effects in different levels of automation, including benefits for driver performance, driver workload, situation awareness, technology acceptance and user experience.