Users’ Preferences for the Communication with Autonomous Micro-Vehicles

With the advent of automation in road traffic, vehicle interaction design is undergoing a major shift and facing new challenges. In this paper, we adopted a user-centered design approach to identify suitable interface types for the interaction between automated light vehicles for urban last-mile deliveries and their human operator. In an exploratory co-creation workshop, we first identified possible interface types with laypeople and logistics employees (N=8). Based on the workshop insights, we surveyed user acceptance of various interface options (e.g., app, voice, and gesture control), the situation- and user-dependency of interface acceptance, and the users’ motivations for preferring specific interface types (online survey study: N=188). The analysis revealed that ease of use, road safety, and compatibility were the most mentioned reasons for preferring a particular interface type. Additionally, results showed that app and voice control were, on average, perceived as most desirable. However, none of the queried interface types was assessed as a perfect fit for each interaction situation and user.