Development of the HMI System That Improves the Safety and Operational Convenience by the Combination of Steering Wheel Switch and Head Up Display

Recently, more and more advanced and sophisticated systems have been equipped on a vehicle for greater driving comfort and convenience. When operating these systems during the driving, however, the driver tends to be induced by the distractive behavior and also his/her workload will be increased. Various methods have been investigated and implemented as solution to this problem, but analysis showed that the driver distraction is still an issue of concern and thus the operation safety remains as a critical problem. To address such kind of problems, a new HMI system concept is proposed and evaluated in this study. This new HMI concept essentially is a remote switch control unit, located on steering wheel, incorporating with a head up display (HUD) for interactive communication. A PC based prototype model was developed for the concept demonstration. Results from driver simulator study show that it can be a human machine interface solution with the features of multi-functional integration and safer for operating.