Stanford University



Communications 169March 11, 2013 Intuition: The Next Rental Carby Katie Lopez, Jean Montag, Malika Mehrotra, Luke BabichRental car drivers face the challenge of navigating unfamiliar roads and an unfamiliar driving culture; they shouldn’t be distracted by navigating their way through an unfamiliar car. A rental car with controls that are intuitively accessible removes the challenge of learning a confusing new interface, allowing the driver to focus on their new environment. Freeing the driver from the manual aspects of driving further empowers them ?as a navigator and decision-maker. Let’s put this in context: ?Dad, Mom, Annie and Charlie are a typical family leaving Ohio to take a vacation in Aspen, where they will be renting an Intuition car to get around for the week. It’s a new environment with a new driving culture. Intuition Rental Cars facilitate the driving process, eliminating the worry, stress, and confusion of adjusting to a new car. The objective is to take some responsibilities off of the driver and delegate those responsibilities to the car. Intuition Rental Cars achieve this with three complementary innovative models: a joystick controller, heads-up display, and a system of mapped dashboard controls. We will expand into all three of these ideas further along in our paper. A brief formal introduction to the new driving system is necessary for the driver, so upon entering the vehicle the controller glows lightly and basic instructions appear on the heads up display. They read as follows:Welcome to your Intuition Rental Car. Your car has some self-driving capabilities, and will hold its lane and follow curves in the road. The car will accelerate and decelerate with the flow of traffic, and brake for other cars, obstacles, and traffic lights. ?Use the controller/joystick to direct the car. The controller can only be moved directly to the left, right, forward or backward. Notice that the controller has two buttons, a trigger button and a thumb button on top of the joystick. ?Pull the controller left or right and the car will signal intention and shift one lane to the left or right whenever the move becomes available. Move the controller to the left or right while pulling the trigger button (notice that the controller can be moved farther to the left or right if the trigger button is being pressed) to make the car signal intention and execute a left or right turn at the next upcoming intersection. Move the controller forward to increase cruising speed and backward to decrease cruising speed. Remember, this adjusts cruising speed, but the car will always brake for other cars, obstacles, and traffic lights. Pressing the top button will clear any orders you have given to the car that have not yet been executed. Enjoy! You may take manual control of the car at any time by grabbing the steering wheel: this will deactivate the function of the controller.Intuition Rental Cars fulfills the need to learn and adjust to a new car when renting a car. The semi-autonomous controller, as we will dive into details later in this paper, is meant to ease the driving process for the user.Though the ideas and innovations described here are looked at particularly within the frame of rental cars, they certainly have applications in a much broader context. We decided that targeting the rental car industry would be a good point of entry into the general automotive industry. The controller system bridges the gap between the steering wheel and the fully autonomous vehicles the industry is moving towards, an invaluable intermediary in the intimidating transition facing car owners, renters, designers and manufacturers alike. However, the innovations discussed here are especially relevant to the particular challenges of a rental car situation, and their ubiquitous benefits are better introduced through the lens of a rental scenario. A semi-autonomous car is particularly attractive to a rental driver. The car’s autonomy frees the driver from the manual aspects of driving, allowing them to focus on navigating through their unfamiliar surroundings. On the other hand, the driver’s control over moment-to-moment decisions in the car encourages exploration. Where a fully autonomous car would simply follow a course from point A to point B, an Intuition Rental Car preserves the driver’s power to make dynamic driving decisions, and deviate from a planned course to pursue interest. This is especially important to a rental car driver, for whom the car is not merely a source of transit but a tool for exploration. The car’s advanced autonomy and other intuitive features mean that the driver no longer has to perform the balancing act of learning to drive in a new environment. They do not have to refer to their phone or GPS for directions, fiddle with confusing dashboard buttons, or worry about steering the car safely, while trying to take in the sights along the way. Heads Up Display:Let us return again to our family of four, renting a car to drive around Aspen. ?They pick up the Intuition Rental Car at the airport and plan to use it to drive through the city to their vacation home. On the way from the airport, there are a number of factors that could decrease the driver’s situational awareness: They are tired from traveling, confused by how to navigate unfamiliar roads and admiring their new surroundings. To help with these distractions, Intuition Rental cars include a heads up display built into the windshield. The GPS navigation is ingrained into user’s actual driving through the HUD. The suggested route to the final destination is superimposed over the road to guide the driver. Thus, there is one less reason for Dad to glance away from the road, since the GPS directions are integrated into his external surroundings. The HUD will also bring the driver’s attention to hazards that interfere with their route by subtly highlighting the windshield to show where that hazardous object is. The driver could be unaware of an erratic driver in the lane next to them. The HUD identifies the dangerous driver and places an alert on the windshield to direct the driver’s attention to this potential danger. The driver could also be unaware of an animal crossing the road up ahead. The car, however, can detect the animal before the driver’s vision, and alert the driver to the upcoming obstacle. The glow on the windshield is noticeable, but subtle enough that it won’t annoy the driver or be compared to a judging and invasive back seat driver. There are two methods in which object and obstacle highlighting can be done: pure image detection and Lidar. Both of these methods are currently being explored by different car companies, however, both methods are also expensive. Although we have done some research on both techniques, we have not decided which method we would specifically use with our product. As directed by a green arrow on his windshield, Dad drives his family onto a highway towards the vacation home. After driving for a while, traffic cones appear in the distance. The heads up display calls his attention to these cones and Dad pushes the joystick left to shift lanes and avoid the cones, and the car has enough time to wait to safely merge into the left lane.The ControllerThe Heads-Up Display has highlighted the route. The visual GPS function shows the route, but the driver still calls all the shots with the controller. A touchy accelerator or an unusual turning radius isn’t of concern to the driver anymore. With the controller, the car can take care of all the mechanics. The driver is free to concentrate on navigating, rather than driving. Drivers can move the controller halfway to the right or left and the car moves over one lane at the next safe opportunity. The car makes use of stay-in-lane technology to keep the car moving forward safely until the driver decides his next action.Dad sees that he will be driving on an expressway for the next twelve miles, as highlighted on the windshield Heads-Up Display. The heads up display also shows that the right hand lane is soon going to be blocked off by construction cones. ?Dad makes the decision that he wants to move over into the unobstructed fast lane and pulls the controller to the left. Now that the driver has decided where to go, the car takes over executing this command. The car signals and when it is safe, the car moves over one lane. The controller also functions as a sort of cruise control. The car automatically drives the speed limit or the speed of traffic, depending on which is the limiting factor. However, the controller can also be moved forward or backward to adjust the car’s cruising speed. When the controller is pulled forward or backward, the speed is displayed on the HUD. The driver can hold it backwards until the speed has dropped down to the desired level. When the driver returns the controller to the neutral center position, the car maintains the designated speed.???????As the road passes through the main street of the mountain town, Smallville, Mom suggests that the family look for restaurants where they might want to return that night for dinner. ?Since the road is empty, Dad pulls the joystick backward until he can see on the Heads-Up Display that he is only going 25 mph. The family scans the surrounding storefronts, looking for restaurants. Charlie points out an especially inviting pasta place, and the family agrees to return there for dinner after they drop their bags off at the vacation home. Dad pushes the controller forward, increasing the car’s cruising speed, and the family heads off on their journey.The controller is used for full turns in addition to simple lane shifts. When the driver pulls the trigger on the controller, the joystick is able to move all the way to the left and right. When the controller is pushed all the way to the right, the car will execute a right hand turn once it arrives at the next intersection. This capacity takes the guesswork out of turning, especially in a new car. It also further cements the role of the driver as a decision-maker, rather than a manual agent. The driver gives tasks to the car, and the car executes them, but the driver is still in control of directing the vehicle through the journey.??????This joystick capacity complements the navigation on the Heads-Up Display. When a driver sees a turn approaching, they move the controller in the corresponding direction before the turn. If they change their mind, they do not have to take the turn. They continue in the direction they choose, and the GPS will quickly reroute and display the new way on the heads up display. This allows a less demanding, more seamless GPS experience and allows the driver to easily deviate from the original course should they decide to do so.??????Dad sees that the planned path to the vacation home, indicated on the HUD, requires him to make a right at the next intersection. However, on the other side of the road, Dad sees a sign indicating a scenic route off to the left. The family decides to take the scenic route instead, and Dad presses the trigger button and pulls the controller all the way to the left. The car makes a left turn onto the scenic route, and the GPS automatically recalculates a new course to the vacation home, and displays this course on the HUD. Mapped Dashboard ControlsThe spatial arrangement of the mapped dashboard controls (MDC) reflects their function, affording the driver intuitive control over the car environment. Charlie is cold because he forgot to take his jacket before Mom put their luggage in the trunk. Dad needs to adjust the temperature for Charlie in the back seat and then return his attention to navigating the Smiths through the city streets. The mapping of the dashboard controls enables Dad to quickly locate the correct button without interpreting layers of arbitrary iconography. The buttons of the MDC are superimposed over a diagram of the car. The location of the buttons in relation to the car diagram specifies their function. For example, the buttons controlling the headlights are superimposed over the headlights of the car represented in the diagram. Thus, finding the most important car controls is intuitive for the rental car driver, regardless of what car interface they are used to interacting with. A thermometer icon indicates that one button is used to control temperature, and the position of this button over the back left seat of the car diagram indicates that the button specifically controls the temperature for the back left seat. Dad knows Charlie is in the back seat; it takes him barely a glance to identify the temperature controls for the back left seat in the MDC, even though Dad has never used the interface before. The interaction with buttons on the MDC is completely intuitive: Dad drags his finger up to increase the temperature, down to decrease it.??????????User feedback from the MDCs is presented on the HUD, facilitating a smooth interaction with the interface that quickly returns the user’s attention to the road. The integration of MDC feedback into the HUD allows Dad to adjust the temperature in the back-left seat to a comfortable level without making him oblivious to road conditions. The control that Dad is manipulating is displayed on the windshield of the car, and the level of the temperature is indicated in degrees according to how far Dad drags his finger across the MDC. Dad moves his finger until the HUD feedback tells him that the temperature for Charlie in the back left seat is 73 degrees, then he releases the MDC. Throughout the process of adjustment, Dad is able to survey the road, prepare to make navigational decisions, and be alert for warning prompts from the HUD. Conclusions and Further ImplicationsIntuition Rental Car addresses the specific needs of our vacationing family. The driver is free to concentrate on navigating, rather than manually driving, because the controller combines the benefits of a self-driving car with the accessibility and dynamic direction afforded by a more familiar system of tactile control. The driver is still the brain of the operations, making the important situation-dependent decisions, but the car will turn and change speed when instructed to. Since driving an Intuition Rental Car mainly relies on decisions, drivers do less of the physical driving. This means that drivers no longer have to figure out the subtleties and nuances of driving a new car. A touchy accelerator or an unusual turning radius isn’t of concern to the driver anymore. The Mapped Dashboard Controls play along the same theme, preventing drivers from needing to figure out a new car. Drivers know where each control is, because the Mapped Dashboard Controls directly correspond to the positions of elements of the car itself. Though the controls are on the dashboard, response and feedback are provided on Heads Up Display. The windshield Heads Up Display works to enhance the driver’s awareness. By highlighting the driver’s GPS route, potential obstacles in the road, and providing feedback of the Mapped Dashboard Controls, the car improves the driver’s ability to understand and respond to issues inside and outside of the car itself. The simplicity of the controller and the Mapped Dashboard Controls and the heightened awareness achieved by the Heads Up Display creates a far easier and safer driving experience, especially for a driver who is unfamiliar with the roads and driving culture they are travelling through. These innovations are also valuable to other branches of the automotive industry. The controller bridges the gap between the way we drive currently and the autonomous cars of the future: the driver still has instantaneous control over the vehicle and their journey, and they are engaged in the road around them in case the autonomous vehicle should encounter a situation it can’t handle and require the human driver to take over manual control. Thus, though the intuitive driving experience and dashboard controls are optimal for a driver in an unknown environment and an unfamiliar vehicle, the Intuition Car has applications beyond rentals. We encourage car companies to incorporate aspects of the Intuition rental car, and reshape these innovations to address more of the many challenges facing drivers and designers. ................
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