Volkswagen, Gen.UrbanWith his research project, he brought his autonomous driving experience to the real city traffic of Wolfsburg. The main purpose of the project is to understand how passengers feel in a vehicle without a steering wheel and pedals and how Level 5 autonomy is achieved. trust instead of anxietyTo discover the “human layer” needed to awaken.
Passenger Experience and Interface Design
In Gen.Urban, passengers can adjust settings such as lighting, air conditioning and seat position via the application or from within the vehicle. can be personalized in advance. In the tests, the fact that the majority of the participants preferred to sit in the driver’s seat even if there was nothing to use in the vehicle was recorded as a critical finding to measure expectations and comfort levels. For safety, a safety driver always sits in the adjacent seat and can be instantly activated if necessary via a separate control panel with joystick.
Findings on Trust and Human Factors
A multidisciplinary team (designers, human factors experts, software engineers) focused not only on driving algorithms but also human-vehicle interactionfocuses. The collected data seeks answers to the following questions:
- What clues make sense?
- How should the interface “talk” to the passenger?
- How can passengers relax while maintaining a sense of control?
This human-centered layer will ultimately enable autonomous driving. Is it natural or disturbing?It is seen as the main difference that will determine how it feels.
Urban Exam Route in Wolfsburg
The test route was deliberately designed as a challenging “urban test”:
- Length and Duration:Approximately 10 kilometers and 20 minutes.
- Challenges:Mix of traffic lights, roundabouts, roadworks and residential/industrial zones.
In the first stage, only Volkswagen Group employees are involved; This controlled approach is a timely step to avoid expanding the data pool before performing basic system verifications.
