Seating Postures for Autonomous Driving Secondary Activities

Abstract

Autonomous driving is currently the most discussed topic in the automotive sector and one of the biggest advantages of fully autonomous driving is the value-added freed time, which the drivers could potentially use to for non-driving secondary activities. Some of the most popular non-driving secondary activities, include window gazing, reading a book, using smartphone, working on a laptop and taking a nap. The study aims to experimentally derive and evaluate the seating positions for these activities in a passenger vehicle. The considered seating angles for the positions, include seat-pan angle, backrest angle and neck flexion angle. The study was conducted in a BMW 7 Series vehicle under stationary conditions. Once the subjects adjusted the seat to their personal preference, the seating angles were recorded using EDIABAS, an internal BMW tool. The participants’ were also required to evaluate each seating position, which they adjusted to their personal preference, using a user experience questionnaire (UEQ). The UEQ is aimed to evaluate the user acceptance of these seating positions inside the passenger vehicle. A total of 51 subjects participated in the study. An average value of seating angles for each activity was calculated, to derive the respective optimum seating position for window gazing, reading a book, using smartphone, working on a laptop and taking a nap in a passenger vehicle. The seating positions derived from the study are useful information that could be used in the development of autonomous driving vehicle interior and in designing seating layout, which would allow the users to participate in activities other than driving.