Backup opening of automatic doors in autonomous vehicles : A usability study

Sammanfattning: Shared autonomous vehicles provide a solution for the future of sustainable and accessible transportation in urban areas, both in terms of social and environmental sustainability. However, these types of vehicles face different challenges in comparison to privately owned ones. For example, it is of greater importance that a shared autonomous vehicle can cater to a large number of users with different prerequisites such as age, limited movement and strength, or visual impairment.  In this project, methods, and interactions for creating a human-centered design solution for backup door opening of automatic doors in the shared autonomous vehicle CM1e have been investigated. The aim of the project is to support the development of safer autonomous vehicles by implementing a solution that is user-friendly and inclusive for a large number of users having different prerequisites. The project has been conducted in Gothenburg at the company China Euro Vehicle Technology (CEVT). At the end of the project, it is expected to deliver a viable mapping of use cases where the user needs to use a backup door opening solution or has to exit in a non-optimal way, pain points of the current solution for the mapped-out use cases, a well-informed and holistic approach to decide which use cases are most relevant to solve considering different criteria, and finally a feasible solution at a conceptual level, solving the most urgent use cases and pain points. This project has had a holistic approach and has focused on both the context and scenarios of usage and how this impacts the users and usability. The investigated area is rather complex having many functions and several mediums. This has also contributed to the project to consider delivering a solution that caters to a task (in this case, exiting a vehicle) rather than one individual interaction. To achieve this use cases have been generated along with user journeys with personas having different prerequisites. This to achieve an objective description of the current functions as well as a subjective description of its limitations depending on the prerequisites of the users. To generate a large number of ideas and select the most relevant ideas, the ideation phase has focused on co-creation with relevant stakeholders and also the enrichment of ideas. By using two different user tests, the proposed solution has been validated in order to create a valuable and credible result. The delivered result offers a solution for use cases where the user/rider needs to exit the vehicle, but the preconditions do not allow the user to do so e.g., to ensure the functionality of the doors. This was uncovered to sometimes keep the user in the vehicle during undesirable situations where the user wishes to exit. The proposed solution utilizes the function of a dead man switch to override the set preconditions and provide the user with control over the door opening process, enabling possible exit without the doors having to open a 100%. Included in the solution is also communication using interfaces and activation of the dead man switch functionality to create a user-centered, accessible, and safe backup door opening solution. The proposed solution is presented using CAD models and renderings in the shape of storyboards.