Since new functions like the Advanced Driving Assistant Systems (ADAS, e.g. lane and frontal collision warnings), the mobile phone, the route guidance, etc. are starting to be available on the vehicles, the drivers have to cope with an increasing amount of information that could enhance their workload, especially when many of these information might compete at the same time for driver's attention. The three-years COMUNICAR project (COmmunication Multimedia UNit Inside CAR), funded by European Commission within the 5th Framework Program "Information Society Technologies", aims to integrate the interfaces of a wide range of functions into a single Human Machine Interface (HMI). To achieve this goal, the interface will be managed by a system called "Information Manager", able to select the best ways to provide this information to the driver on the basis of the driving conditions. This paper will describe how the "Information Manager" rules have been conceived and tested, particularly in laboratory and driving simulator conditions. Therefore, experimental set ups and main results will be described. Finally, the status of the HMI system implementation in two vehicle prototypes will be also pointed out.
Samenvatting