Increasing User Experience and Trust in Automated Vehicles via an Ambient Light Display.

Today’s developments in the automotive industry are moving towards automated driving. At the highest levels, the driver becomes the passenger, which presents a new challenge for human-computer interaction. People not only have to trust in the automated system but are also confronted with increased complexity, as it is often not clear what the automated vehicle is about to do. An ambient light display is one way to give the driver a clearer picture of the car’s intentions and to keep complexity low. We have examined the impact on trust and user experience in more detail using two concepts for an ambient light display. One design provides information about detected potential conflicts in the current trajectory. The other design also highlights the future trajectory. We implemented both concepts as virtual light bars at the bottom of the screens. We evaluated them in a fixed-base driving simulator with 18 participants against each other and a baseline condition without additional information. Our scenario is a fully automated journey (SAE Level 5) through a German town. Although the two concepts do not differ much from each other, only the display showing both information – possible conflicts and future driving route – provided a clear added value for the users.