ROUND TABLE  - Organizing education of how to drive with smart vehicles

Everyone in the Automotive ecosystem agrees that in ca. ten years, the whole system will be modernizing incredibly. Legislation around climate change is a big contributor.

The good effects of these innovations are the economical availability of useful ADAS and navigation features, potentially making the dynamic driving task safer than ever. On the other hand, maybe new risks may be introduced, which have to be mitigated by getting the right actionable knowledge in place.

The following trends are being noticed:

•Wide family novel ADAS functions being introduced (Blind Spot, AEB, Lane Assist, ACC);

•Electrification;

•Infotainment/connectivity / cloud.

•Automation dynamic driver tasks (DCAS, L2+, L3 etc.);

What has not changed is that cars have still been designed and built to drive for approximately twenty-eighteen years safely. This means that the system roughly consists of 3 categories of vehicles:

1. The majority of the cars (75%) have fossil engines with an average age of 10+1 years;
2. Ca. 20% have L1 (ADAS) functions and
3. Ca. 5% of cars have advanced L1, L2 (L2+) functions (of which 3% are fully electric).

With the growing family of ADAS support functions, we see that in categories 2 and 3 (circa 25%), the HMI interfaces show large differences between OEMs.
Technology goes faster than legislation.

PROBLEM

The system of all drivers (existing and new) and all cars (existing and new) face the following problems today:
• How can driving schools train drivers for all 3 categories effectively?
• Drivers with an ADAS-equipped car do not use all the available functions;
• When a driver switches from car A to car B (e.g. rental car, drive your parents/colleagues' car), the chances of not understanding within 15 minutes the new HMI get higher;

The first challenge is how to quantify the impact of these problems on traffic safety.

During the event, we will facilitate an inclusive discussion featuring experts from various organizations, including educational, government, and automotive sectors.
What are the barriers drivers face preventing them from switching to new functionalities?

The goal of the round table is to share insights and identify opportunities to improve road safety. Additionally, our goal is to document conversations in a white paper. The next phase could be to invite all participants to come up with solutions in a follow-up round table.

The research will explore different ways to inform and educate drivers about ADAS and how it impacts the effectiveness of ADAS use.

To gather insights about drivers' behaviour and ADAS utilisation, eye-tracking glasses will be utilised in field tests.