Robot-like in-vehicle agent for a level 3 automated vehicle

Zeng, X., Bazilinskyy, P.

Submitted for publication.

ABSTRACT With the rapid development of automotive technology and artificial intelligence, in-vehicle agents have great potential to solve the challenges of explaining the status of the system and the intentions of an automated vehicle. A robot-like in-vehicle agent was designed and developed to explore the in-vehicle agent communicating through gestures and facial expressions with a driver in a SAE Level 3 automated vehicle. An experiment with 12 participants was conducted to evaluate the prototype. The results showed that both interactions of facial expressions and gestures can reduce workload and increase usefulness and satisfaction. However, gestures seem to be more functional and preferred by the driver while facial expressions seem to be more emotional and preferred by passengers. Furthermore, gestures are easier to notice but difficult to understand independently, and facial expressions are hard to notice but more attractive.