Workflow for Evaluating Vehicle Interiors Using Serious Gaming

The evaluation of vehicle interiors is necessary for ensuring user comfort, and safety, as well as overall acceptance and satisfaction. Carrying out these evaluations with a user-centric approach helps to understand the requirements from the user's point of view. Implementing the virtual reality (VR) method using real-time rendering to create a Digital Twin (DT) of the vehicle interior and environment provides a multi-dimensional opportunity for simulating and assessing user interactions with the vehicle interior elements and interfaces along with user experience in vehicle interiors. A workflow for creating virtual environments, focusing on scenario-based evaluations in vehicle interiors is presented in this paper. The workflow comprises multiple stages, including the creation of 3D models, integrating 3D assets, defining functionalities using blueprint mode of scripting, creating sequences to display animations, creating triggers for events within scenarios, and activating VR preview mode. The workflow described in this paper can be implemented based on the use cases and aspects that require evaluation. A use case of evaluating user acceptance of the interior of a shared automated vehicle (SAV) is considered to explain the workflow, by describing how it was implemented for this particular use case, and by discussing the results of the evaluation.