4. The “HMI tool kit” as a Strategy for the Systematic Derivation of User-Oriented HMI Concepts of Driver Assistance Systems in Urban Areas

The development of driver assistance systems has shown various innovation waves in the last few decades. While such systems can contribute to increasing driving safety and comfort on highways and rural roads, future systems will be enhanced to include urban traffic. Such trends also face challenges, especially in the design of human-machine-interfaces (HMIs). In the UR:BAN project, one aim was to design user-oriented, integrative HMI concepts of current and future assistance systems by considering the challenges of urban driving. Therefore, the cross-functional “HMI tool kit” was developed comprising a strategy for the systematic derivation of action-oriented HMI concepts. The structure of the HMI tool kit differentiates between cases of applications for safe, comfortable, and energy-efficient driving, which takes requirements of different time horizon and user-actions into account. The HMI tool kit provides insight into 1) how information, warnings, and system interventions should be filtered and prioritized to the driver concerning the current traffic situation and 2) how the preferred driver behaviour can be achieved in the situation by the selection of suitable HMI components (e.g. display in the instrument cluster, warnings or sounds). The aim is to warn the driver adequately in safety-critical situations and allow him to develop a sufficient understanding for continuous system interventions or advanced navigation recommendations. The UR:BAN HMI concepts can contribute to an anticipatory driving style, to mitigate safety-critical situations, and to improve stress-free and low-emission driving in urban traffic.