Enhancing inclusion and user experience in Automated Driving Systems: understanding individual differences for user interface customization

Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS) technology is rapidly growing. Fully automated vehicles are already operating as self-driving taxis in California and Arizona, and fully automated shuttles are being tested around Europe. At this early stage, where ADS is still being tested it is crucial to combine the technology development with the social and ethical goals behind ADS implementation. Safety, sustainability, and inclusive mobility are the principles that guide ADS innovation, however, automation per se does not achieve these goals (Arfini et al., 2023). Research should focus on these elements to actively pursue them and avoid that ADS would just replace current transports. Specifically, ADS user interface (UI) design needs to be centred on promoting these principles to generate an effective and inclusive human-machine interaction (HMI). However, the user experience interacting with ADS UI is ultimately the one that informs the applicable design of UI to ensure safe, inclusive, and comfortable journeys (Riener et al., 2022). Investigations on user experience for automated vehicles (AV) showed "accessibility", and "personalization and customization" as part of users' needs (Lee et al., 2022). Research has also looked at human needs in different use cases of activities during automated navigation (Rittger & Schrader, 2022), but there is still much to understand regarding individual and cultural differences in user need profiles for ADS UI information delivery and user experience. This applies to the general population that may have different preferences (e.g., Micklitz et al., 2023) and especially to people with special needs or psycho-physical conditions. For example, some studies have examined ADS UI for specific populations such as visually impaired users (e.g., Angeleska et al., 2022, Fink et al., 2023) and identified needs and potential prototypes for users with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Padmanaban et al., 2021). However, specific investigations on preferences towards ways to deliver environmental and contextual information are needed, as well as more naturalistic observations through simulations that will make it possible to better understand user experience and the effects of the UI in diverse populations. The project also intends to explore how the information and its presentation modality can best support multisensory access and how customizability can play a role in the perception of control for any user.
Therefore, the project aims to enhance user experience for ADS by looking at users' need profiles focusing on individual differences. To this end, Study 1 of the Ph.D. will investigate the users' needs regarding contextual and environmental information during ADS navigation and their relations with user profiles. Study 2 will assess the role of customization of user interfaces (UI) in user experience through virtual reality ADS driving simulations and finally, study 3 will test a population sample with navigational special needs to understand how customization of user interfaces (UI) and other factors identified in earlier studies may impact the user experience for this specific population. The goal is to gain insights that contribute to enhancing inclusivity in the design and acceptance of fully automated vehicles.

Impact Summary

This proposal has been developed from the ground up to guarantee the highest level of impact. The two principal routes towards impact are via the graduates that we train and by the embedding of the research that is undertaken into commercial activity. The impact will have a significant commercial value through addressing skills requirements and providing technical solutions for the automotive industry - a key sector for the UK economy.

The graduates that emerge from our CDT (at least 84 people) will be transformative in two distinct ways. The first is a technical route and the second is cultural.

In a technical role, their deep subject matter expertise across all of the key topics needed as the industry transitions to a more sustainable future. This expertise is made much more accessible and applicable by their broad understanding of the engineering and commercial context in which they work. They will have all of the right competencies to ensure that they can achieve a very significant contribution to technologies and processes within the sector from the start of their careers, an impact that will grow over time. Importantly, this CDT is producing graduates in a highly skilled sector of the economy, leading to jobs that are £50,000 more productive per employee than average (i.e. more GVA). These graduates are in demand, as there are a lack of highly skilled engineers to undertake specialist automotive propulsion research and fill the estimated 5,000 job vacancies in the UK due to these skills shortages. Ultimately, the CDT will create a highly specialised and productive talent pipeline for the UK economy.

The route to impact through cultural change is perhaps of even more significance in the long term. Our cohort will be highly diverse, an outcome driven by our wide catchment in terms of academic background, giving them a 'diversity edge'. The cultural change that is enabled by this powerful cohort will have a profound impact, facilitating a move away from 'business as usual'.

The research outputs of the CDT will have impact in two important fields - the products produced and processes used within the indsutry. The academic team leading and operating this CDT have a long track record of generating impact through the application of their research outputs to industrially relevant problems. This understanding is embodied in the design of our CDT and has already begun in the definition of the training programmes and research themes that will meet the future needs of our industry and international partners. Exchange of people is the surest way to achieve lasting and deep exchange of expertise and ideas. The students will undertake placements at the collaborating companies and will lead to employment of the graduates in partner companies.

The CDT is an integral part of the IAAPS initiative. The IAAPS Business Case highlights the need to develop and train suitably skilled and qualified engineers in order to achieve, over the first five years of IAAPS' operations, an additional £70 million research and innovation expenditure, creating an additional turnover of £800 million for the automotive sector, £221 million in GVA and 1,900 new highly productive jobs.

The CDT is designed to deliver transformational impact for our industrial partners and the automotive sector in general. The impact is wider than this, since the products and services that our partners produce have a fundamental part to play in the way we organise our lives in a modern society. The impact on the developing world is even more profound. The rush to mobility across the developing world, the increasing spending power of a growing global middle class, the move to more urban living and the increasingly urgent threat of climate change combine to make the impact of the work we do directly relevant to more people than ever before. This CDT can help change the world by effecting the change that needs to happen in our industry.