Exploring Universal and Cultural Preferences for Different Concepts of Autonomous Vehicles’ External Communication in China, USA and Germany

Anne Marie Julie Barthe Wesseling*, Ruth Mugge, Elmer van Grondelle, Ina Othersen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedings/Edited volumeConference contributionScientificpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

External communication constitutes a research area that has emerged from the need to develop an effective and intuitive system that enables autonomous vehicles (AVs) to communicate with all human road users. Considering that AVs generally target different countries, it is important to understand potential cultural differences in user preferences to various external communication concepts. This research investigates user preferences for seven external communication concepts using an online questionnaire (N = 710) in three diverse cultures (i.e. China, Germany and the United States of America). Specifically, the study explores the potential of the following concepts: Display, LED, emphasized inclination caused by vehicle behavior (“Incline”), Directed Sound Beam (“Sound”), Smart Assistant in Wearables, Smart infrastructure, and Augmented Reality. After seeing short movies of these concepts, participants rated the concepts on usability and trust. The findings demonstrate that opportunities exist for both universalization and localization. In addition, these results describe an opportunity for a modular external communication concept that consist of a baseline concept and cultural-specific modules. The baseline concept can be derived from universal preferences for external communication concepts. This baseline concept is to be extended with cultural-specific modules that aim to optimize usability and human understanding in specific cultures based on information preferences.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationCross-Cultural Design. User Experience of Products, Services, and Intelligent Environments - 12th International Conference, CCD 2020, Held as Part of the 22nd HCI International Conference, HCII 2020, Proceedings
EditorsPei-Luen Patrick Rau
PublisherSpringerOpen
Pages641-660
Number of pages20
ISBN (Print)9783030497873
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Event12th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Design, CCD 2020, held as part of the 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2020 - Copenhagen, Denmark
Duration: 19 Jul 202024 Jul 2020

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume12192 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference12th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Design, CCD 2020, held as part of the 22nd International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, HCII 2020
Country/TerritoryDenmark
CityCopenhagen
Period19/07/2024/07/20

Keywords

  • Autonomous vehicles
  • Culture
  • Design
  • External communication
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Universal access

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