Chicken or egg problem? New challenges and proposals of digital human modeling and interior development of automated vehicles

Abstract

Traditional manual driving task sets the boundary conditions of possible driver’s postures and interior design—for example, the constant necessity for all control elements to always be easily accessible is essential. With the development of the automated vehicles (AVs), the driver is able to carry out different activities and be out of the loop of vehicle dynamic control at a level 3 or higher level of automation [1]. This fact shifts the focus of interior development from the driving task (DT) to non-driving-related tasks (NDRTs). However, unknown non-driving postures (NDPs), unknown corresponding digital human models (DHMs), unknown interior concepts and their interaction with mutual dependency result in a chicken-egg dilemma. This work offers a detailed insight into this problem, states the challenges and opportunities for discovering new NDPs, developing new DHMs for AVs, and proposes an iterative user-centered interior development process to resolve this deadlock.