Letting Drivers Know What is Going on in Traffic

There are many different Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS) that have been developed and are currently under development. Some of them are already on the market. These systems can be categorized into information/warning, active assistance/semi-automation, and full/high automation. The bottleneck of ADAS technology's application in vehicles is the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) design. In the present situation, the information from ADAS is normally presented by warning signals to the driver on potentially hazardous situations in traffic. In general, a warning signal is regarded as an unpleasant stimulation. If we take the time perspective from a normal drive to crash into consideration, we can divide the drive into three phases: normal drive in comfort zone, pre-crash in safety zone, and automation when the driver loses control. Warning design has many negative issues, such as the time issue, the modality issue, information transparency, and the false alarm issue. The idealistic way to assist drivers is to enhance their traffic situation awareness so they can always keep their driving in a comfort zone, and to support them with the right information, so that they can predict upcoming events in traffic, prepare for unpredictable occurrences, and take appropriate action if necessary. From warning design to letting the driver know what is going on in traffic, the HMI design needs to meet dynamic requirements for drivers in different traffic situations. These challenges are very different from warning designs. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved