Co-DAS: Development and Evaluation of Co-Driver Assistance System Concepts to Reduce Passenger Discomfort

Abstract

The front seat passenger is often neglected when developing support systems for cars. There exist few examples of systems that provide information or interaction possibilities specifically to those passengers. Previous research indicated that the passive role of the passenger can frequently lead to a feeling of discomfort, potentially caused by missing information and missing control with respect to the driving situation. This paper proposes a variety of prototypical passenger assistance systems that target different aspects of the cognitive processes which could cause the feeling of discomfort. In a simulator study with N = 40 participants, these systems were investigated with respect to their influence on measures of discomfort. Participants experienced different car following and braking scenarios on the highway with different time headways, with and without one of the passenger assistance systems. Based on the subjective measures, three systems were identified as particularly useful in reducing discomfort. For the best of these proposals, more than 63 % of the passengers confirmed the usefulness of the approach and reported an interest in using it in their vehicle. This demonstrates significant opportunities to improve the everyday driving experience beyond classical assistant systems by explicitly taking into account the needs of the passengers.

User Evaluation of Passenger Assistance System Concepts on Public Highways

“…The previous simulator study (Ittner et al, 2019(Ittner et al, , 2021) investigated basic concepts that are reflected in the systems proposed in this work. The aim of the simulator study was to test first concepts of passenger assistance systems to see if it is possible to reduce discomfort with them and if they are suitable as assistance systems.…”

“…This can lead to the feeling of being exposed to the situation and cause high passenger discomfort. In a prior user study (Ittner et al, 2019(Ittner et al, , 2021, different information concepts, which were based on this model, were tested for their potential to reduce passenger discomfort in driving. The insights from this simulator study were used to design three different passenger assistant systems, which will be introduced in the following.…”

“…However, a survey has shown that passenger discomfort is a common problem ( Ittner et al, 2020 ). Based on the results from this survey, a previous simulator study ( Ittner et al, 2019 , 2021 ) investigated different information concepts inspired by a cognitive model of passenger discomfort ( Ittner et al, 2020 ) toward their potential benefit during driving. The results showed that it was possible to reduce passenger discomfort with certain concepts, while other concepts investigated in the study proved to be less suitable.…”