As autonomous vehicle (AV) technology grows so rapidly across the automotive industry, traditional sell-based car companies are also seeking out opportunities to incorporate autonomous driving features into their product offerings. And when AV technology becomes mature enough in the foreseeable future, the launching of privately owned dual-mode AVs is expected.

However, in present days, research still shows that many Americans are holding a negative attitude against AV, and a lot of them are unwilling to use the tech due to lack of authority and concerns of ceding control to a machine.

Therefore, in the future, being able to provide users more controls and a sense of authority in a privately owned dual-mode AV is important. Because:

• Privately owned: Compared to public AVs, drivers tend to pay more attention to vehicle usage, thus exerting more authority over the vehicle.
• Dual-Mode: In the context where autonomous driving can only be operated within the mapped area, switching vehicles between auto-mode and manual mode for drivers is required. For drivers who are used to driving a dual-mode AV, being able to influence autonomous driving behavior is highly expected.

Duration
Feb.2021 - May.2021

Category
Private interaction design project (topic
originated @Ford Motor Company)

Team members
‍Sam Ma, Bob Bao

Design Tools
Figma, Sketch, InVision, Adobe Illustrator

About
My colleague Bob and I did a project with a similar topic at Ford in 2019, the project got excellent reviewed but bookshelfed due to company reorganization and shift of focus. After that, Bob and I decided to take on the topic with our perspectives and approaches.

My role
‍1. Scoped and planned the research, as well as conducted the user interviews.
2. Led the Analysis and synthesis of the research data, came up with insights and design principles, and created a portion of visual assets for storytelling.
3. Led the system design of the product, and prototyped a portion of the UI assets.
4. Conducted usability test and iterated the product based on user feedback.

What do future AV owners value? How might we help them better control autonomous driving? To better understand the problem space, user needs, and concerns, user research was conducted, the research objectives include:

• Understand what “control” means to people and what contributes to the “feel of control” while taking a ride.

• Understand what drives people to intervene in a riding or request a driving behavior change?

• Understand people’s expectation towards an AV system.

• Understand what type of controls people expect from an AV.

Conducting research and predicting precisely the behavior of private AV owners is difficult for they don’t yet exist. Therefore, current vehicle owners were studied as analogous research audiences. To understand how vehicle owners currently exert control, we investigated situations where they take a ride of their vehicle driven by another driver, and then fill the gap between the human driver and autonomous driving.

User Interviews

8 user interviews with current vehicle owners were conducted during the research. These vehicle owners came with different demographics, backgrounds, and understanding of autonomous vehicle technologies to make sure the data is representative enough. Each interview lasts 60 minutes.

What was asked

• In what situations, vehicle owners will let other people drive their vehicle. and how do they feel about them?
• How do vehicle owners exert authority when their vehicle is driven by another person? What makes them comfortable and uncomfortable?
• In what situations, vehicle owners will intervene indriver’s driving, and how would they do it?
• What is people's expectation of a privately owned AV? Do they want to influence the autonomous driving behavior/style, and how do they expect to do it?

A large amount of interview data was organized and structured into a manageable format, and then themes and patterns were mapped out from it. We then further developed insights and design principles from the data. To maintain social distance during the COVID pandemic, an online platform (Figma) was also used for collaboration between team members.

To help guide our design, 8 key design principles were summarized based on the insights and research findings. As one of the core deliverables, these design principles will also be applicable when design other AV systems in the future.

Individual features and concepts are ideated around each design principle, and they are grouped and combined into design systems.

6 participants from the original user interviews were invited to the remote concept evaluation sessions. An interactive prototype was sent to them during a task-based study session, and follow-up questions were asked in a post-test interview.

Based on the result of the evolution, some general feedbacks have been summarized, and we have also identified several potential issues that need to be further addressed.

General Feedbacks

• 6/6 participants considered the design useful and intuitive for exerting control and authority to autonomous driving.
• 5/6 participants thought the design can help driver to feel more in control.
• 6/6 participant were able to understand the interaction logic , and were able to take the right action within the time limit during the test.
• 5/6 participants liked the fact that the design is clean and doesn't provide them with too much information.

Potential Issues

• Interactable design elements are not identifiable enough in our visual design.
• Some participants were confused about the driving styles.
• Understandability of the roadway maneuver options needs to be increased.

Design for the future

Design for future technology and audiences is difficult because data cannot be obtained directly from the users, and technologies are changing exponentially. However, researchers can always start investigating the problem space through the lens of foundational human needs, (in our case, people's need to feel in control inside their own property), and looking into the similar scenario that happens now.

Problem reframe

Most of the time, the research data will lead the problem space in a new direction. When this happens. not only do designers themselves need to be comfortable reframing the problem, but also they need to push and guide the whole team to think beyond the surface of the problem, especially in multi-disciplinary corporative environments, where not everybody has a good practice with design thinking methodologies.

Remote collaboration

During the COVID pandemic, remote team collaboration became a new norm, and it is having a great impact on the design process. Without working on the same topic with physical touchpoints and exchange ideas face to face, designers are facing challenges especially on qualitative data analysis and conceptualization phases. Therefore, after experimenting with different collaboration tools and platforms, our team has changed the strategy of qualitative data analysis to one person lead the process, and the other primarily offering critiques and feedbacks.

Proficiency in the online platforms and tools also increased our remote collaboration efficiency on UI development and prototyping. Trust among team members is crucial when work is split.

2D (3D) animations

The current situation awareness display doesn't contain animated traffic, further development is needed to show the dynamic traffic and other interaction details.

Maneuver input device and cockpit area

Since physical experience is also an important portion of our design, prototyping the maneuver input device and cockpit area can help us create a more holistic experience.

Usability test with an integrated experience

With the integration of animated situation awareness display and physical touchpoints, we are able to conduct a usability study with the full experience of our design solution. The result of the study will drive future iterations of the design.

Tracking the industry

The autonomous driving industry is still in its growth, any breakthrough of the technology or regulation change is going to impact our design solution.