Abstract:
Autonomous driving system (ADS) is anticipated to revolutionize travel by reclaiming lost time and improve safety on the roads.
With automation, user-engagements that enhances road monitoring
should be considered to maintain vigilance and safety. From the literature, virtual reality (VR) usage in cars offer productivity and increased
privacy. This paper explores the efficacy of passenger use of VR headsets
to enhance user-engagement during transit. User-engagement was quantified using physiological measures (pupillary response and electrodermal activity) during an in-car VR game/activity experiment. Further, the
impacts of engaging with secondary tasks was evaluated using reaction
time of pop-up objects. We designed a driving simulation with inbuilt
entertaining activities, no-task, game-task, video-task, and mixed-task,
played in a real car with a FOVE VR headset on the perimeter track of the
Gifu University campus with 15 subjects (average 25.6 years, SD = 6.4).
From reaction time, significant difference between tasks was found using one-way ANOVA (F(3,231) = 2.75, p = .0437). A post-hoc test revealed
that game and mixed task reaction times were significantly different
(p = .0126 and p = .016, respectively) suggesting that task design should
consider hazard recognition in a real car. From physiological measures,
an increased/sustained effect of user engagement was noted compared
with baseline (no-task) suggesting effectiveness in maintaining vigilance. The results also reported a 10-fold improvement in sitting posture
compared to baseline. The methodology employed is applicable as an
indirect measure of engagement that would find use in productivity and
vigilance study in an ADS
