A Literature Review of Seating and Body Angles for Non-driving Secondary Activities in Autonomous Driving Vehicles

Abstract

It is envisioned that the development of fully autonomous driving technology would allow future drivers to participate/engage in secondary activities other than the driving task. To undertake these non-driving secondary activities, the driver would need to be seated in a position that is different to the conventional driving position. In this study, a survey of scientific literature in the field of the relevant secondary activities, the associated seating positions, seating and body angles are being conducted by referring to 18 different sources published up to 2017. The aim of this study is to find out commonly used seat angles for different secondary activities and their seating positions. There is a current lack of literature specifically for seating positions of non-driving secondary activities, hence the research field was extended to consider a range of similar seating including office chairs, passenger seats in trains and aircraft, massage chairs, and lounge chairs among others.