Tools for stimulating interaction amongst passengers of autonomous vehicles

Abstract

This project is focussed on a design for stimulating interaction amongst passengers in the Seabubble. The Seabubble is an autonomous hydrofoil that is able to fly above water. The Seabubble can transport 4 to 5 passengers on inland waterways. The hydrofoil-technology creates a whole new travel-experience because it provides very stable and silent travel conditions.Haven-Stad is used as a case-study. This water-rich area in het Westelijk Havengebied of Amsterdam will be transformed into a mix of residential- and workplaces. The Seabubble can make community sharing possible within this area.The ViP-method served as the main research & design method to create a future-oriented context for the design. Additionally a creative session and Minimal Viable Products supported the designing phase. The VIP-method requires a construction of a future context in which the design is implemented. This context is created by means of literature-research, a survey and interviews. This resulted in a context in which the challenge of the design lies in connecting 2 divergent type of individual-oriented passengers: the passengers differ in their preference regarding (continuous) technical development, like autonomous vehicles.Additionally a detailed description of the desired interaction is required. The easiest interaction for individual type of passengers is a spontaneous interaction. This spontaneous interaction is described by an analogy: The interplay of confidence and doubt during improvisation.The creative session led to the first ideas of how to exploit the journey by Seabubble as a social stimulus between neighbours of Haven-Stad. This session resulted in several design directions. These directions are used for MVP-testing in which low-fidelity prototypes, in test set-ups, test if the ideas would give the desired effect in practice. The obtained insights are translated into a list of requirements as a guideline for a design for the Seabubble and to provide as tools for stakeholders in the field of shared autonomous vehicles. For this last reason, all the insights are bundled into a guide in a generic state.MVP-testing showed that a certain amount of (cooperative) control provides a motivation for undertaking interaction. This insight was used, together with the list of requirements, to design a control-system for the Seabubble: the SpeedBubble. It facilitates interaction by requiring passengers to cooperate in order to have a sense of control on the sailing speed.The SpeedBubble is a projection that indicates the speed of the Seabubble. The passenger can choose to interfere with the control of the autonomous Seabubble by means of the SpeedBubble; they can collect ‘bubbles’ by moving their hands orfeet. The amount of control depends on the amount of collaboration since the SpeedBubble can only be controlled when the passengers act in successive order (regarding their seating position).The evaluation of the SpeedBubble concept was conducted amongst neighbours in a test set-up. The test showed that the concept stimulates interaction in a spontaneous way. Both divergent type of passengers were actively involved.The SpeedBubble concept could be offered as a customization-option for parties that would want to implement Seabubbles in community sharing contexts.