Building trust in AVs can start with the user interface

When it comes to the design of autonomous vehicles, experts say one area that remains wide open for exploration is the shape and form of the interior.

A central focus of current research is the user experience, specifically the type and amount of information an autonomous vehicle should provide to the rider.

"It's become very clear through student work that occupants of an AV feel much safer and will maintain trust over time if there is some visibility into what the machine is thinking," said Todd Masilko, an instructor at the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.

"There's a whole new set of interface conventions that we have not figured out yet."

That's why Volvo Trucks, which is working on autonomous platooning of semi trucks, involves customers and drivers as it develops and validates its user interface, said Johan Larsson, director of autonomous solutions for Volvo Trucks North America.

Bringing drivers and fleet managers into the development of advanced driver assistance systems has been critical in making it easy to understand what the system can automate as well as its limitations, he said.

"The system should aid the driver with clear information on the surroundings," he said. "We learn what messages are important to drivers by listening to their input and experiences during testing."

Currently, Volvo's communications to drivers focus on big events, such as changes to speed and distance between vehicles.

"We've added a specific display in the trucks' dashboards to deliver information to the drivers on when to engage platooning, the health status of the platooning and when to disengage platooning," Larsson said.

'Look-up moments'

In Phoenix, Waymo has been gathering real-world information on its AVs since April 2017. Riders give feedback after every trip, and for the most part, they say riding in an AV is like riding in a car with a human driver.

But there are times where something feels different, said Ryan Powell, Waymo's head of design and user experience. It's these "look-up moments" that tell Waymo when something needs more work.

"If someone is down in their phone and they look up and have a question about what the car is doing, we try to be there for the rider in terms of providing that level of information," he said. "We have a passenger screen in the car and we're trying to be very transparent about what the car can see and what its intent is."

Exploration, interaction

It's also the job of autonomous vehicle designers and engineers to prepare for situations the automotive industry hasn't yet fully explored.

Masilko and his students at the ArtCenter College of Design are exploring the field of interaction design.

"We get asked over and over again what interaction design is. It's basically, in a nutshell, the design of the human experience of connected or digital services."

ArtCenter students learn by making prototypes and models, and testing them with people, Masilko said.

"It's really important in interaction design, if you're designing some kind of complicated user experience, to do your best research but then make it and try it and learn from it," he said.

Masilko has taught a half-dozen classes over the last few years on the user experience in autonomous vehicles, including some that have been hosted by auto makers concerned with what happens to their brand or driving experience when AVs are introduced.

Honda, for instance, which has a long-standing relationship with the ArtCenter, asked the school to help imagine what it will mean to no longer be a company focused on driving, Masilko said.

But the most fascinating example, he said, involved Didi Chuxing Technology Co., known informally as the Uber of China.

Didi sponsored a project that challenged Masilko's students to propose a specific problem and design a vehicle to solve it.

Some students studied how autonomous ride-share vehicles could, in the case of an emergency, switch modes and get their occupants to a hospital by cutting through traffic. Others decided to investigate what it would take for parents of elementary school students to let an autonomous vehicle take their children to and from school every day.

"By getting really specific about it, the students came up with a service that connects the family and the school," he said. "They would never have come up with this if they didn't really think deeply about actual, complicated, hard-to-figure-out human needs."

Waymo's Powell said today's AVs can be thought of like a Razr flip phone from 15 years ago.

It was a reliable device that allowed you to talk and send messages, but it was supplanted by smartphones that can do so much more. And now we can't imagine our lives without them. "We're now at a similar point with (AVs) where it is early days, but I think in the not-too-distant future, it'll feel like something that's mainstream," he said.