DRIVERLESS CAR OCCUPANTS COULD GAME TOGETHER ON THE ROAD

Unlike the partially autonomous vehicles currently permitted on roads, such as the Tesla Model 3 (classified as SAE Level 2), fully autonomous vehicles (SAE Level 4 or 5) will not require a human occupant to regularly intervene. At these levels of autonomy, occupants will no longer need to watch the road closely during their journey.

“As autonomous vehicles start to replace conventional vehicles, occupants will have much more free time than they used to,” said PhD student Matthew Lakier, who is based at the university’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab. “You could use time spent in commute to read a book, watch a movie, get ahead on work, or browse the internet.”

Lakier and his colleagues have developed three games created for SAE Level 3 and higher autonomous vehicles, which use the unique environment of an autonomous vehicle to enhance gameplay. Future autonomous vehicles are highly likely to have standard vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems to share real-time information about relative positions, and ‘heads-up displays’ to keep the occupant aware of speed and other factors. Finding that little attention had been given to cross-car gaming, the researchers developed three multiplayer games that can be played with occupants of nearby autonomous vehicles.

“Not everything you do [in an autonomous car] has to be all isolated,” said Lakier. “You will be able to play games with other people in autonomous vehicles nearby when the car is driving itself. The games will be imposed on top of the actual world, so drivers won’t have to take their eyes off the road.”

The researchers developed a VR driving simulation of an autonomous car cabin and outdoor environment filled with other autonomous vehicles, and participants played the three cross-car games – with occasional takeover tasks – inside the simulation. Their experience was measured through a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The University of Waterloo team found that the participants enjoyed the games and their incorporation into the cabin of the (simulated) car.

“Overall, the participants rated the games highly in immersion, there was a positive response to the incorporation of [heads-up displays] in the games, and the different game styles did not significantly impact the takeover task completion time,” Lakier said. “All games were popular for different reasons.”

“People were happy to play with strangers. So, example, they said they could form impromptu relationships with other people on the road.”