Enhancing the User Experience of Autonomous Vehicles

As cars become increasingly autonomous, their interiors must evolve to support activities other than driving. This realization forms the basis for a project from Renault, the major French multinational automobile company, given to a team of design students from Stanford University and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). The specific prompt concerns interior design features for cars with Level 4 automation, which will often drive autonomously but still require occasional human control.

When users are asked what they would like to do in an autonomous car, the most popular response is sleeping. After sleeping, come various activities, many of which revolve around desktop functions such as reading, writing, checking email, video conferencing, etc. Because Level 4 cars still require humans to be able to take over, any systems that are put in place must be able to get out of the way at a moments notice. Additional concerns include safety, both during normal operation and in the event of a crash, and ease of use for a wide variety of drivers.

The solution developed by the design team from Stanford and NTNU consists of an articulated table that can deploy or fold away at a moments notice, providing a useful work surface when the car is in autonomous mode (Figure 1) and disappearing when the user needs to drive. The upper surface of the table is an array of deformable spring-loaded elements that create a programmable surface or mesh, which can locate and cradle common items such as cellphones, books, tablets and writing utensils, preventing them from sliding around during normal driving.

When the user is requested to take over driving, he/she can easily push the table away. Capacitive sensors on the side of the table activates the storing of the table back in the center console. Because of the special shape of the table surface, the user don’t need to worry about his/her objects sliding off and can resume driving on short notice.
The following figures shows the table in the car, giving the overall view of its motions, size, etc.