Improving Human-Machine Interface (HMI) Design and Evaluation Practices for Automated Vehicles
Abstract:
Safety recalls have been issued for vehicles recently because drivers were accidentally hitting the engine on-off button when they wanted to turn their radios up. Interfaces do not get much simpler than a push button, however some manufacturers have trouble designing the most basic controls in vehicles to be safe and user-friendly. They are also having trouble standardizing in-vehicle controls and displays. Engine on-off button design and operation vary significantly among manufacturers and even among models from the same manufacturer. This raises concerns for the safety and usability of automated vehicles. If the simplest human-machine interfaces (HMI) on conventional vehicles cannot be standardized for safety and usability, it can only be expected that some problems will emerge for more complex vehicles. Automated vehicles will require human driver supervision and intervention for many years, so there is a vital need to apply effective HMI design practices, particularly for identifying and addressing risks. Multiple methods and tools are needed to design and evaluate safe driver-vehicle interfaces for automated vehicles. In this talk, a hierarchical approach is proposed focusing on a) the development process, b) expert assessments, c) laboratory user testing and finally d) field testing. New human factors design procedures and metrics will also be needed to address these issues.
Bio:
Dr. Peter Burns is Chief of the Human Factors & Crash Avoidance division at Transport Canada. His division develops test methods and conducts applied research on human factors and the safety performance of vehicle systems. This work supports the development of federal and international motor vehicle safety standards. Before Transport Canada, Peter worked as a Research Fellow at the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) in the U.K and for Volvo in Gothenburg Sweden. He received a doctorate degree in automotive Human Factors from Loughborough University in England and a Masters in Traffic Psychology from Queen’s University in Canada. Peter has over 25 years of experience in the field of road safety research.
