The Purpose Built Vehicle (PBV) is a multipurpose mobility that provides various forms, functions, and services to customers' needs within a driverless car in the era of autonomous driving. The Robo-Shuttle, an electric vehicle based PBV designed for ...
The Purpose Built Vehicle (PBV) is a multipurpose mobility that provides various forms, functions, and services to customers' needs within a driverless car in the era of autonomous driving. The Robo-Shuttle, an electric vehicle based PBV designed for autonomous public transportation, is recognized as an important element contributing to the sustainable development of smart city mobility. As participation in the Robo-Shuttle industry has been observed worldwide, the introduction of future urban autonomous mobility is also accelerating in the domestic market. Consequently, driverless Robo-Shuttle services are preparing for commercialization and entering the stage of practical implementation. The introduction of Robo-Shuttles is expected to not only bring technological innovation but also transform the responsibility of communication from vehicle occupants to the vehicles themselves.
Robo-Shuttle refers to a multi-passenger mobility that combines autonomous driving and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, representing a level 5 autonomous vehicle. As the transition period approaches where autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles share the road, there is a high possibility of accidents resulting from inadequate understanding or communication between the driver-absent autonomous vehicles and other road users due to incorrect judgments. Therefore, for safe interactions between Robo-Shuttles and various road users sharing the road, it is essential to provide feedback based on the surrounding traffic conditions. With the emergence of autonomous driving, the significance of external Human Machine Interface (eHMI) for communication between the vehicle and the external environment in the absence of a driver is increasing. eHMI is used as an interface for communication with the vehicle's external environment in autonomous vehicles. As traditional communication methods among road users such as visual signals, gestures, eye contact, and head nods become ineffective, the importance of eHMI is becoming more prominent.
Thus, this research aims to explore whether there are significant differences in user experience (UX) through situational implication information provision (presence/absence) and intention transmission via displays, considering that the most common type of accident in autonomous driving services involves rear-end collisions. It is a UX study on the interaction and eHMI information provision methods between Robo -Shuttles and non-autonomous vehicles in a Robo Shuttle environment. Specifically, the study explores effective eHMI design directions to enhance mutual understanding and communication between autonomous and non-autonomous vehicles by selecting predictability of behavior, perceived interactivity, and trust as dependent variables in the context of rear drivers in Robo-Shuttles.
The results showed that when situational implication information was provided, there were positive effects in terms of predictability of behavior, perceived interactivity, and trust compared to when it was not provided. However, the light band was relatively rated lower in all scenarios due to the limits of expression range. In all experimental conditions of yielding and sudden scenarios, the effects were significantly more pronounced in sudden scenario situations than in yielding scenarios. This finding indicates that yielding scenarios were influenced by the subjective judgment of participants, as revealed through in-depth interviews.
This research highlights the need for interaction design focusing on the Robo-Shuttle context in the eHMI research field, which has been inadequately addressed. Specifically, by setting scenarios that can occur in autonomous driving contexts, such as yielding and sudden situations, this study presents interaction design directions between Robo-Shuttles and non-autonomous drivers. It has practical significance as a preliminary study supporting the design direction of eHMI considering the characteristics of Robo-Shuttles based on the necessity of research during the commercialization phase of Robo-Shuttles, taking into account accident types and causes.