Passenger’s Preference on Internal Interface Design in Driverless Buses: A Virtual Reality Experiment

Driverless buses are anticipated to enhance mobility services. Nevertheless, addressing passenger concerns about safety and information provision becomes crucial when there is no driver or onboard authority. Cabin services, such as emergency information, are handled by a remote operator via an internal human machine interface (iHMI). Integrating passengers’ preferences into the iHMI design while dealing with issues related to remote monitoring is an underexplored area in current research. This study aims to examine the content and methods of information presentation for iHMI in driverless buses, with a specific focus on whether projecting the appearance of the remote operator onto the iHMI can enhance the acceptability and trust in driverless buses. To facilitate efficient development and assessment, a virtual reality environment was constructed to replicate the situation inside a driverless bus. In the experiment, 60 participants were recruited and divided into three groups. They experienced both normal driving scenarios and abnormal driving scenarios involving emergency events. Group A experienced the iHMI without the appearance of the remote operator in both normal and abnormal scenarios; Group B experienced the iHMI with the appearance of the remote operator only in abnormal conditions; Group C experienced the iHMI with the appearance of the remote operator in both normal and abnormal scenarios. The results, however, revealed that presenting the remote operator on the iHMI did not significantly affect passenger’s subjective experience, indicating that further exploration and refinement might be needed for optimal passenger experience.