What generally is considered automation regarding driving, is the possibility for the driver to let the vehicle take over the driving or some of the driving tasks. But it can also be that the vehicle automatically will take over control in situations where the driver cannot cope. It is more or less unknown how drivers are reasoning about these future systems, which was the reason for doing this study. Focus group discussion was used as the method to investigate this in order to reach a broad and rich description on how drivers are reasoning about automated driving. Four discussions were carried out; one with young people, one with older drivers, one with men and one with women, in total 28 participants. The participants were encouraged to think about the future, say 5-20 years from now, and the possibilities that it might bring. Several angles on automated driving were highlighted and subjects in focus were mostly connected to whom the system was designed for and who could afford it. A great deal of the discussions were about different aspects on safety and security – if it would increase safe driving or not, if speed would increase, if the driver can select automated driving himself, technical problems, data security and if the driver can maintain alertness and attention. A question often raised was a concern that drivers in the future will lose knowledge of driving and driving skills, and that education will be important. When it came to future vehicles it was not obvious that one would see the same kind of vehicles that we see today. Issues like responsibilities and legal matters were discussed and the understanding was that this must be investigated. The focus group discussions also resulted in a long list of innovative ideas. If looking at main user needs it can be seen that some want to have automation when driving long and boring distances (e.g. for comfort reasons) while others want to have automation to help them cope with difficult driving situations (e.g. for safety reasons). Both these needs are probably necessary to fulfill in the future. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting