An Autonomous Driving System - Dedicated Vehicle for People with ASD and their Caregivers

TL;DR

This paper presents the design and testing of an autonomous vehicle tailored for people with ASD and their caregivers, focusing on safety, comfort, and trust to enhance mobility for users with cognitive disabilities.

Contribution

It introduces a human-centered design process for creating an ASD-specific autonomous vehicle, including user research, prototype development, and preliminary testing.

Findings

Prototype shows potential to improve mobility for people with ASD

User needs such as safety and comfort are effectively addressed

Initial tests indicate increased trust and usability

Abstract

Automated driving system - dedicated vehicles (ADS-DVs), specially designed for people with various disabilities, can be beneficial to improve their mobility. However, research related to autonomous vehicles (AVs) for people with cognitive disabilities, especially Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is limited. Thus, in this study, we focused on the challenge that we framed: "How might we design an ADS-DV that benefits people with ASD and their caregivers?". In order to address the design challenge, we followed the human-centered design process. First, we conducted user research with caregivers of people with ASD. Second, we identified their user needs, including safety, monitoring and updates, individual preferences, comfort, trust, and reliability. Third, we generated a large number of ideas with brainstorming and affinity diagrams, based on which we proposed an ADS-DV prototype with a mobile application and an interior design. Fourth, we tested both the low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes to fix the possible issues. Our preliminary results showed that such an ASD-DV would potentially improve the mobility of those with ASD without worries.