Designing autonomous driving HMI system: Interaction need insight and design tool study

Abstract

With the development of high precision sensing, automation, artificial intelligent and etc., human may experience a fully autonomous vehicle in commercial operation in 2021 [1], where passengers might engage in none-driving activities during journeys. There can be more possibilities to design car interior infrastructure and interaction without providing driving interface to drivers. Thus, we can re-design the whole HMI system to provide brand new user experience [2]. Based on an actual project, we summarize the design method and process, we obtained insights of user needs and design the HMI system accordingly. We explain why and how to use the process and tools in the context of our project. Finally, we evaluated our need insight and design tool by contrasting the HMI designed with our process with another HMI designed with a normal process (first think-aloud and then focus group). We also outline a design proposal to express our vision for the interaction design of future autonomous vehicle.