Developing Situational Awareness for Joint Action with Autonomous Vehicles

TL;DR

This paper proposes a systems-level framework integrating cognitive theories to enhance human-AV shared situational awareness through tailored communication, aiming to improve safety, trust, and learning in autonomous vehicle interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework combining cognitive theories and situational factors to guide AV communication design for better human-AV joint action.

Findings

Framework supports understanding of individual and shared situational awareness.

Guides tailored AV communication based on context and traits.

Facilitates design of communication strategies for diverse driving scenarios.

Abstract

Unanswered questions about how human-AV interaction designers can support rider's informational needs hinders Autonomous Vehicles (AV) adoption. To achieve joint human-AV action goals - such as safe transportation, trust, or learning from an AV - sufficient situational awareness must be held by the human, AV, and human-AV system collectively. We present a systems-level framework that integrates cognitive theories of joint action and situational awareness as a means to tailor communications that meet the criteria necessary for goal success. This framework is based on four components of the shared situation: AV traits, action goals, subject-specific traits and states, and the situated driving context. AV communications should be tailored to these factors and be sensitive when they change. This framework can be useful for understanding individual, shared, and distributed human-AV situational awareness and designing for future AV communications that meet the informational needs and goals of diverse groups and in diverse driving contexts.