"Don't make me turn this seat around!"

Abstract

From the earliest concepts of autonomous cars, a prototypical model has emerged in which occupants freely orient themselves to engage in non-driving activities. This new environment prompts questions about how car occupants will actually sit, what activities they will engage in, and how they will relate with one another socially. To explore these questions, 17 undergraduate and graduate students, situated in the passenger seat of a simulated autonomous car, engaged in visualization and think-aloud exercises, as well as semi-structured interviews, to relate their current behaviors as car passengers with their imagined experience as the driver of an autonomous car. Themes emerged regarding individuals' preferred physical orientations as well as social dynamics with other occupants. This exploratory inquiry unearths situational and social issues of concern to interface designers of future autonomous cars, offering a preliminary overview of ergonomic and social issues to explore further.