An inclusive design framework for autonomous vehicles to create valuable experience for elderly

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Program, May, 2020Cataloged from the official version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 65-68).Autonomous vehicles are approaching the market faster than we imagined and the ageing population is growing year after year. Today the world is facing several challenges related to personal mobility like traffic congestion, pollution, road accidents, and many more. The autonomous vehicle is a promising technology that has the potential to address some of these challenges. While we consider personal mobility, there is an opportunity to introduce autonomous vehicles for the ageing population. Right now, we are designing the technology keeping potential users in mind, which may not include the older persons. Since this technology is at the initial stage, we could intervene and design a better inclusive technology irrespective of age and health conditions. In this research, we are applying human-centered design approach to study autonomous vehicles and elderly people of tomorrow. We have leveraged various qualitative research methodologies and a human-centered design approach to better understand the domain. As a result, we are proposing a novel framework which might help us design a better inclusive technology for the future.by Samip Jain.S.M. in Engineering and ManagementS.M.inEngineeringandManagement Massachusetts Institute of Technology, System Design and Management Progra