Improving the safety of self-driving vehicles in Australia 

Congratulations to QUT (Queensland University of Technology) and Seeing Machines for their ongoing collaboration through the Australian Government Department of Education‘s National Industry PhD Program. Yueteng Yu has commenced his PhD studies under the supervision of QUT’s Professor Ronald Schroeter and Dr Jonny Kuo from Seeing Machines.

Automated vehicles are on the rise, but a key factor hindering their safe introduction and adoption is our limited understanding of how we interface with this technology, more specifically, our level of awareness and our readiness to take control in potentially life-threatening and dangerous circumstances. This project will design and evaluate novel human-machine interface (HMI) systems that improve situation awareness and driver readiness to take over control in automated vehicles (AVs). It will investigate the use of subtle vestibular cues (perceived through the inner ear, for example, a gentle “tilt” sensation associated with the vehicle dynamics the car’s motions) to enhance HMI. Novel strategies that contribute to accelerating AV deployment in Australia is expected from this project, reducing road crash-related injuries and fatalities and contributing to regional industries, which tend to suffer from driver shortages.