Harman Autonomous Vehicle Control
Designing a collaborative control for human and artificial intelligence
Prompt
Harman International, a Samsung company, engaged the Carnegie Mellon Human-Computer Interaction Institute to improve the user experience of autonomous vehicles.
My Role
· Lead Interaction Designer
· Hand-sketched interaction design concepts, proposed to team.
· Created high fidelity interactions in Framer.
· Designed Wizard of Oz driving experiment.
*A greater focus on my individual contributions to this project can be found in the next case study.
Methods
Wizard of Oz Experiment that simulated the experience of being in an autonomous vehicle by obscuring the driver.
User Interviews with Tesla Owners and car enthusiasts.
Affinity Diagramming revealed patterns in our data and actionable insights
Creative Matrix comparing Harman's technical capabilities and our areas of focus found in the affinity.
BodyStorming led to the testing of ergonomic and interactions for the in-vehicle context.
Driving Simulator + Usability Testing were used together to test new interaction concepts.
The Solution
· A UX concept in which the vehicle cockpit is a bridge for collaboration between the the vehicle's AI and the the control of the human driver.
· A curved screen interface that embodies the dichotomy of joint decision making with the vehicle.
· Interactions designed for a curved screen that empower the user with agency at key moments throughout the drive.
The Prototype
The team created a curved surface interface, employing rear projection and hand tracking, which manipulated a driving simulator in real time.
The prototype was used to validate our interaction design concepts in the highest fidelity possible. A video of the prototype is below.
Design for Semi-Autonomy
The Folk Model of Self-Driving Vehicles
Through research we discovered a commonly oversimplified view of autonomy, also called a folk model. The misconception is that autonomy is binary.
In other words, there is only manual driving and full autonomy - and nothing in between.
A common misconception is that driving is either fully automated or fully manual.
Self-Driving Today Requires Sustained Vigilance
in reality, autonomous driving is somewhere in the middle: Some of the mental work is taken off the hands of the human driver, but even so, they have to supervise the vehicle and be prepared to take back control.
Humans perform poorly in tasks of sustained vigilance.
Gradually Achieving Full Autonomy
Technology is gradually shifting towards vehicles that can handle every possible situation without the need for human supervision or intervention.
That shift is occurring over time, as AI masters more of the multitude of tasks involved in driving.