Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are on the rise, yet the knowledge about privacy preferences by different types of drivers in this context needs to be improved. This paper presents survey-based research (N=528) focusing on preferences of drivers from South Africa and the Nordic countries for data processing and sharing by ITS, including future vehicular ad hoc networks. Our results indicate regionally framed drivers' privacy attitudes and behaviours. South African participants have higher privacy concerns and risk perception. However, their preferences to share location data with police, family and friends, emergency services, and insurance companies are higher. Moreover, the region significantly affects preferences for transparency and control and sharing frequency, as well as willingness to pay for privacy, which are higher among the South Africans. We discuss how our results on factors, including region, impacting drivers’ privacy preferences can contribute to the design of usable privacy and identity management for ITS.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3641997
Current voice assistants present messages in a predefined format without considering users’ mental states. This paper presents an optimization-based approach to alleviate this issue which adjusts the level of details and speech speed of the voice messages according to the estimated cognitive load of the user. In the first user study (N=12), we investigated the impact of cognitive load on user performance. The findings reveal significant differences in preferred message formats across five cognitive load levels, substantiating the need for voice message adaptation. We then implemented AdaptiveVoice, an algorithm based on combinatorial optimization to generate adaptive voice messages in real-time. In the second user study (N=30) conducted in a VR-simulated driving environment, we compared AdaptiveVoice with a fixed format baseline, with and without visual guidance on the Heads-up display(HUD). Results indicate that users benefit from AdaptiveVoice with reduced response time and improved driving performance, particularly when it is augmented with HUD.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642876
In automotive user interface design, testing often starts with lab-based driving simulators and migrates toward on-road studies to mitigate risks. Mixed reality (XR) helps translate virtual study designs to the real road to increase ecological validity. However, researchers rarely run the same study in both in-lab and on-road simulators due to the challenges of replicating studies in both physical and virtual worlds. To provide a common infrastructure to port in-lab study designs on-road, we built a platform-portable infrastructure, Portobello, to enable us to run twinned physical-virtual studies. As a proof-of-concept, we extended the on-road simulator XR-OOM with Portobello. We ran a within-subjects, autonomous-vehicle crosswalk cooperation study (N=32) both in-lab and on-road to investigate study design portability and platform-driven influences on study outcomes. To our knowledge, this is the first system that enables the twinning of studies originally designed for in-lab simulators to be carried out in an on-road platform.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642341
Passengers can engage more in nondriving-related tasks owing to recent advancements in autonomous vehicles (AVs), making immersive tools such as virtual reality (VR) appealing; however, motion sickness (MS) remains a significant challenge. We present SYNC-VR, a system that aligns with visual, haptic, and auditory cues and provides proprioceptive feedback to illustrate its effect on MS and presence within the in-vehicle VR. We conducted an experiment with 24 participants using a real vehicle along a route with known MS-triggering events. Using subjective and physiological measures, we assessed participants’ presence and MS under four conditions by gradually varying the level of synchronized input sensations. Results reveal that SYNC-VR reduces MS and increases the sense of presence. Additionally, it emphasizes the impact of our interactive VR content and its role in achieving proprioceptive feedback with haptic feedback through electrical muscle stimulation, introducing an innovative approach to MS mitigation in in-vehicle VR.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642941
Semi-autonomous vehicles allow drivers to engage with non-driving related tasks (NDRTs). However, these tasks interfere with the driver's situational awareness, key when they need to safely retake control of the vehicle. This paper investigates if Augmented Reality (AR) could be used to present NDRTs to reduce their impact on situational awareness. Two experiments compared driver performance on a hazard prediction task whilst interacting with an NDRT, presented either as an AR Heads-Up Display or a traditional Heads-Down Display. The results demonstrate that an AR display including a novel dynamic attentional cue improves situational awareness, depending on the workload of the NDRT and design of the cue. The results provide novel insights for designers of in-car systems about how to design NDRTs to aid driver situational awareness in future vehicles.
doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642300