Skip to main content

When driving becomes the distraction

utomotive supplier Faurecia and Stanford University's Center for Design Research, have formed a partnership aimed at studying potential behavioural changes in an autonomous vehicle. The organisations will share initial research findings at the Connected Car Expo during the Los Angeles Auto Show. Faurecia and Stanford have identified several important challenges the industry must address to mitigate consumer apprehension to new driving modes: Creating a Confident Occupant Experience; Safely Enabling New
November 13, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Automotive supplier Faurecia and Stanford University's Center for Design Research, have formed a partnership aimed at studying potential behavioural changes in an autonomous vehicle. The organisations will share initial research findings at the Connected Car Expo during the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Faurecia and Stanford have identified several important challenges the industry must address to mitigate consumer apprehension to new driving modes: Creating a Confident Occupant Experience; Safely Enabling New User Scenarios; Mitigating Motion Sickness.  

Faurecia and Stanford believe these and other considerations will take an increasingly important role in the future development of autonomous transportation, with more attention placed on what's happening inside the vehicle.

Dr David Sirkin of the Stanford Center for Design Research and Matthew Benson of Faurecia's xWorks innovation centre will present their research, When Driving Becomes the Distraction: Putting the Occupant Back in the Mobility Conversation, at the Connected Car Expo on 17 November.

"As the automotive industry continues its march toward autonomous vehicles, most of its efforts have been focused on creating the technology that will enable auto-pilot functionality," said Rob Huber, vice president of innovation for Faurecia. "While this is an essential foundation, Faurecia is prioritising a parallel development track focused on how we enhance the mobility experience by improving life-on-board, making comfort, customisation and connectivity a priority."

"In partnering with Faurecia, we are taking the industry's first steps toward anticipating and averting problems that autonomous-car drivers may encounter in their transition from active controllers to multi-tasking occupants of vehicles," said Sirkin. "While the industry often considers the new technologies required to keep autonomous cars safely on course, these physiological issues will require their own approaches to vehicle design and engineering."

Related Content

  • October 17, 2019
    Getting C/AVs from pipedream to reality
    The UK government has suggested that driverless cars could be on the roads by 2021. But designers and engineers are grappling with a number of difficult issues, muses Chris Hayhurst of MathWorks Earlier this year, the UK government made the bold statement that by 2021, driverless cars will be on the UK’s roads. But is this an achievable reality? Driverless technology already has its use cases on our roads, with levels of autonomy ranked on a scale. At one end of the spectrum, level 1 is defined by th
  • April 26, 2013
    ITS asset management matters
    Maintenance of on-road ITS kit needs to become more sophisticated; while new technologies can deliver better road maintenance. David Crawford investigates both sides of the issue "Good information is key to effective ITS asset maintenance,” says Ian Routledge of the Ian Routledge Consultancy (IRC), whose Imtrac (Information Management for TRAffic Control) system is poised for European expansion. Developed as an ‘intelligent filing cabinet’ for storing information about on-road equipment, the online database
  • April 18, 2023
    ITS America 2023: a stellar event beckons
    A view from ITS America Events organisers at RX Global on what is shaping up to be an unmissable stellar event
  • July 19, 2012
    Align transport infrastructure needs with ITS offerings
    Kallistratos Dionelis, General Secretary of ASECAP, ponders the absence of creativity and innovation in the road management sector. 'Traditional' road managers and ITS specialists share many of the same ultimate goals and yet, he says, a common understanding of what technology can achieve is still conspicuously absent.