Using gaze-based interactions in automated vehicles for increased road safety

Abstract

The development of self-driving vehicles seems to go well with the growing demand for the daily use of mobile devices. However, autonomous vehicles will still need manual intervention in unforeseen or dangerous situations. Therefore, it is important for the driver to stay aware of the traffic situation around, and so to be quickly able to take over. We developed a prototype which represents media content on a simulated windshield display and uses gaze tracking as an additional form of input device for the driver. Although we intentionally pull away the driver's gaze from the driving situation, this seems to be less of a distraction than using hand-held mobile devices or dash-integrated display devices. We hypothesize that the time to regain control with our prototype is shorter compared to traditional media presentation. This work-in-progress paper provides insight to the concept of the prototype while first results will be presented at the conference.