Putting the Joy in Driving: Investigating the Use of a Joystick as an Alternative to Traditional Controls within Future Autonomous Vehicles

Large, David R.; Banks, Victoria; Burnett, Gary E.; Margaritis, Neofytos

Abstract

Unencumbered by the need to provide permanent manual control, future autonomous vehicles may be absent of traditional driving elements, such as a steering wheel and foot-pedals. While this provides additional space/comfort for drivers, an alternative device/s, that enables quick and effective manual control recovery, may still be required. Twenty participants, comprising an equal number of 'Drivers' and 'Non-Drivers', undertook two drives utilising a medium-fidelity simulator in which the original steering wheel and pedal-set were removed/deactivated. Participants controlled the vehicle using a centrally-mounted joystick in 2 scenarios: following an unexpected take-over request and during an extended period of manual driving. Results show that both groups rated the technology positively and were generally capable of manoeuvring the vehicle. Nevertheless, the groups differed in the way that performance was effected. For example, significant differences were evident in visual behaviour, resulting in 50% (n=5) of Non-Drivers colliding with another vehicle following transfer of control.

Citation

Large, D. R., Banks, V., Burnett, G. E., & Margaritis, N. (2017). Putting the Joy in Driving: Investigating the Use of a Joystick as an Alternative to Traditional Controls within Future Autonomous Vehicles. In AutomotiveUI '17: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (31-39). https://doi.org/10.1145/3122986.3122996

• Conference Name: 9th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications
• Conference Location: Oldenburg, Germany
• Start Date: Sep 24, 2017
• End Date: Sep 27, 2017
• Acceptance Date: Sep 24, 2017
• Publication Date: Sep 24, 2017
• Deposit Date: Nov 22, 2018
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 31-39
• Book Title: AutomotiveUI '17: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications
• ISBN: 978-1-4503-5150-8
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3122986.3122996
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1213943
• Publisher URL: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=3122986.3122996