A Virtual Reality-based Platform to Validate HMI Design for Increasing User’s Trust in Autonomous Vehicle

This research aims at providing an example of how Virtual Reality technology can support the design and development process of the Human Machine Interaction system in the field of Autonomous vehicles. The autonomous vehicles will be an important role in the future’s daily life, as widely concerned. However, the relationship between the human user and the vehicle changes in the autonomous driving scenario, therefore a new interactive modality should be established to guarantee the operational precision and the comfort of the user. But as an underdevelopment sector, there are no mature guidelines for the interaction design in autonomous vehicles. In the early phase of the autonomous vehicle popularization, the first challenge is to build the trust of the user towards the autonomous vehicle. Keeping high transparency of the autonomous vehicle’s behavior to the user will be very helpful, however, it is not possible to communicate the information that the sensors of the autonomous vehicle are collecting because it can create safety risks. In this research, two hierarchical Human Machine Interaction information systems have been introduced and a virtual reality scenario has been developed, based on the most popular applicating scenario: the autonomous taxi. Possible verification methods are also discussed to apply the tool, considering the current design and development procedure in industry, in order to give constructive help to the researchers and practitioners in the field.