The expansion of new infotainment and In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) into vehicles in recent years has afforded drivers new activities and connectivity that can potentially impact safety. It is important to understand how these new technologies impact drivers’ workload and performance. Work sponsored by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety led to the development of new methods for measuring the visual and cognitive demands associated with different in-vehicle systems. This report expands on earlier efforts from AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, describing the results of an on-road study looking at the visual and cognitive demand as well as the task completion time for a variety of infotainment tasks and interaction methods. Importantly, the report compares the performance of native OEM infotainment systems in five 2017 model year vehicles with the performance of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto—two popular third-party systems that can be paired with a vehicle’s interface. This report and its outcomes should be a useful reference for OEMs, developers of advanced IVIS, public agencies and researchers, as well as the general driving population. (Author/publisher)
Abstract