To gain an understanding of how a user interacts with an autonomous vehicle, it’s important to look to the interior of an autonomous vehicle as that is where this interaction between technology and user takes place. This research is heavily influenced by Future Bridge’s article, ‘Opportunities in Autonomous Vehicle Interiors’.
Opportunities in Autonomous Vehicle Interiors - FutureBridge
There are many OEM’s that have been designing product especially for AV:
CURRENT SCENARIO
SEATING
As outlined by Future Bridge, seating will be an aspect of AV that will harbour the most change from manual vehicles (MV).
Adient have developed seating which monitors the user’s heart rate and respiration levels which would assess their stress levels and provide solutions where required. They have also developed rotating seating, which rotates at a range of 15 degrees, to greet the user and also harbour better social interaction.
INSTRUMENT PANEL
Faurecia unveiled an innovative instrument panel concept, where the panel adapts to the changes, as per driving mode. In the normal driving mode, the driver can see the panel, which is useful for navigation, ensuring road and safety information. As soon as the autonomous mode is switched on, the display glides and moves to the centre of the panel. This ensures the display is visible for all passengers, as the screen also adapts and becomes large.
GESTURE BASED TECHNOLOGY
BMW unveiled the concept of ‘i Interaction EASE’. In this, along with greeting the passenger in an autonomous vehicle, they can interact with the vehicle using a new type of gesture control, the gaze detection system. The passenger need not learn various commands. The vehicle using intelligent AI adapts itself to the exterior environment and provides the passenger with various options of having coffee, food, etc. A spoken and gesture command can be given to the subject, as soon as the passenger finds something interesting inside the vehicle, as per the exterior environment. There are three modes that the passenger can choose from – Explore, Entertain, and Ease.
There were may other OEM’s that have produced technologies of note which are available in the article, however I feel that these are the most usable and adaptable technologies in the list.