Autonomous Vehicle Situational-Awareness View for Rider Confidence
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Solution Overview
Problem
Riders in autonomous vehicles often experience anxiety due to a lack of understanding about the vehicle's perception of its environment, leading to a reluctance to use dynamic transportation matching systems that utilize autonomous vehicles.
Innovation Solution
A situational-awareness view is displayed on a computing device inside the autonomous vehicle, providing a graphical representation of the external environment, including objects and roads perceived by the vehicle, to reassure riders of the vehicle's awareness of its surroundings.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If autonomous vehicles are used to provide transportation services, then productivity and efficiency are improved, but rider anxiety and fear increase due to lack of understanding of vehicle perception
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides real-time feedback to riders by displaying the situational awareness view, showing objects and environment data detected by the autonomous vehicle's sensors. This feedback mechanism allows riders to understand what the vehicle perceives, reducing anxiety while maintaining autonomous operation efficiency
Solution Approach 2:
A computing device acts as an intermediary between the autonomous vehicle's sensor system and the rider. It processes sensor data and presents it in a comprehensible visual format, bridging the gap between machine perception and human understanding
2Ease of operation
If a situational-awareness view is displayed to riders, then rider anxiety is reduced and understanding of vehicle perception is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The computing device performs multiple functions: it processes sensor data, generates the situational awareness view, and displays information to the rider. By consolidating these functions in a single multi-functional device, the system manages complexity while providing comprehensive rider information
3Loss of information
If detailed environmental perception data is provided to riders, then understanding and confidence in the autonomous vehicle increase, but loss of information increases due to processing requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the most relevant environmental information from the complete sensor data set and presents it to the rider. By selecting and displaying only critical objects and features, the system maintains rider confidence while minimizing information processing requirements and losses
Data Source
AI summary
In one embodiment, a method includes receiving sensor data from a sensor array of a vehicle while traveling on a road. The method includes determining a confidence score for a classification of an object based on the sensor data. The method includes generating an object graphic corresponding to the object based on the confidence score for the classification of the object. The method includes retrieving, from one or more third-party systems, third-party data associated with an environment in proximity to the object and associated with the road based on the classification. The method includes generating an overlay graphic corresponding to the environment in proximity to the object based on the third-party data. The method includes providing for display the object graphic rendered in association with the overlay graphic corresponding to the environment.