Soft Robotic, Haptic Feedback Seat for Autonomy Level Transitions in Highly Automated Vehicles

Significant progress has been made in the race for the first commercially available fully autonomous vehicles in recent decades. Meanwhile, forecasts predict that 70% of all newly registered vehicles will have autonomous driving functions on highways by 2050. Fully autonomous vehicles, capable of completing entire journeys without the intervention of a human driver, will be one of the biggest transformative technologies of the next few decades. As we move towards fully autonomous vehicles, the number of highly automated vehicles on the road will increase, requiring the human driver to take back control in situations that the vehicle cannot handle autonomously. These human-robot takeover requests can lead to safety risks, especially in scenarios where the driver does not understand the takeover request and therefore lacks situational awareness. This project researches the acceptance and usability of a driver's seat with haptic feedback that can inform the driver of a takeover request through static mechano-tactile haptic feedback.