Autonomous Vehicle News
Autonomous driving technologies have already been integrated into many mass-produced vehicles, providing human drivers with steering assistance in tasks like centering a vehicle in its lane. Now, researchers from the lab have collaborated with Japanese steering system supplier JTEKT Corporation to develop and successfully road-test a haptics-based automated driving system that integrates different modes of human-robot interaction. The researchers hope that their approach will increase not only the safety of automated driving, but also social acceptance of it. The researchers' system achieves this thanks to three functionalities: interaction, arbitration, and inclusion. The researchers specifically tested drivers' experiences of steering smoothness and lane-changing ease, and their results confirmed the system's significant potential for increasing comfort and reducing effort for drivers through collaborative steering.