News

Here you will find news from the project, current appointments and invitations to participate in user studies.

Current issues

RUMBA Final Event

On April 24, 2024, the public research project RUMBA presented its project results to the professional audience in Renningen after a project duration of 3.5 years. Under the leadership of Bosch, the consortium, consisting of OEMs, suppliers, and scientific institutes, conducted research on the design of automated driving.
In RUMBA, “Achieving a positive user experience through user-friendly design of the vehicle interior for automated driving functions”, the focus is on the user and their needs, rather than the fundamental technology of automated driving. In fully automated driving the driver will take on the role of a passenger and increasingly want to make full use of the freedoms gained. When asking users of future automated vehicles how they would like to use their time during an automated drive, the answers can often be categorized into four categories:
  • Entertainment
  • Productive work
  • Communication
  • Rest and relaxation

In order for these activities to be comfortably carried out in the vehicle, larger adjustments are needed in the vehicle interior. In the project, a safe, efficient, and comfortable driving behavior was developed in parallel. Because for an optimal user experience, the newly designed vehicle interiors must be coordinated with the driving behavior of the automation, so that the occupants can build trust, feel safe and comfortable, and not suffer from symptoms of motion sickness.

During the final event, the consortium presented the project results in the form of technical presentations, poster and screen presentations, VR demonstrations, and driving demonstrations on the test track. The high level of interest in the main topics was demonstrated by the over 200 guests and the numerous expert discussions. The event was rounded off by three external keynotes:

  • UX sounds for human-machine interaction (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Alexander von Hoffmann , TH Nürnberg)
  • Automotive Health: Health applications in the vehicle (Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Sven Winkelmann , TH Nürnberg)
  • Opportunities and Challenges: How Shared Autonomous Vehicles (SAVs) will revolutionize mobility. (Marvin Greifenstein , Universität St. Gallen)

Link to press information

Link zum Downloadbereich

Link zum Video

Evaluation Mid-Fidelity-Prototype

As part of WP 5 “Evaluation of the concepts in terms of driving safety and user experience”, the Hochschule der Medien evaluated two concepts for innovative vehicle interiors in experimental research settings: In a field study, a vehicle interior concept was evaluated with regard to social interaction during automated driving; in a driving simulator study, the focus was on work and entertainment during automated driving. The video provides insights into the vehicle interior concepts and the approach of the two evaluation studies.

RUMBA Halbzeitveranstaltung

Zur Projekthalbzeit stellte das RUMBA Konsortium am 21.10.2022 am Forschungscampus der Robert Bosch GmbH in Renningen die bisher erzielten Projektergebnisse nach zweijähriger Forschung vor.

Der aktuelle Stand der Forschung wurde in fünf Vortragssessions zu den Themen: Nutzerzentriertes Vorgehen im Projekt, Innenraumkonzeptionierung, Human-Machine Interaction, Fahrkomfort sowie Nutzerzustand und dessen Erkennung vorgestellt. In einer parallelen Ausstellung hatten die Besucher die Möglichkeit an zahlreichen Ständen die Forschungsergebnisse mit Experten und Expertinnen zu diskutieren. Mit Hilfe von Virtual Reality-Demonstrationen wurden die Vision von zukünftigen Innenräumen im Pkw & Lkw erlebbar dargestellt. Auf dem Testgelände wurden die entwickelten Konzepte zur Reduktion von Motion Sickness in einer automatisierten Stop-and-go Fahrt demonstriert. Im Rahmen einer kleinen Nutzerstudie durften die Besucher auf dem Fahrersitz eines automatisierten Fahrzeuges Platz nehmen und die verschiedenen Maßnahmen erleben und bewerten. Zwei externe Key-Note Vorträge von Saskia Lexen (AUDI AG) zum Thema „Autonomes Fahren auf dem Weg zur gesellschaftlichen Akzeptanz“ und Dr. Eva Fraedrich (MOIA GmbH) zum Thema „Ridepooling als Baustein für die Mobilitätswende: MOIA in Hamburg“ bildeten den Rahmen eines spannenden und erlebnisreichen Tages.

 

Participants wanted: Your opinion matters

Shape the future with us and take part in our group discussion on an innovative concept for an automated vehicle! The group discussion will take place at Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart and will last approximately two to three hours.

You are very welcome to share the flyer.

We are looking forward to your participation.

User requirements for the design of vehicle interiors for fully automated driving

Patricia Haar, Anne Pagenkopf, Michaela Teicht, Arnd Engeln – Hochschule der Medien Stuttgart

n the course of the first process step of the RUMBA project (UAP 1.2), the Hochschule der Medien conducted a user study. For this purpose, a combined driving simulator and diary study was used to investigate the requirements of fully automated driving on the vehicle interior as well as on displays and controls from the perspective of passenger car users. A paper (see Publications) reports core findings of the user study, which include non-driving activities performed during automated driving and interior design requirements. Among the non-driving activities, cell phone use and reading play a significant role. Interior requirements can be divided into nine categories: Interior design, climate, lighting, freedom of movement, interaction with passengers, seats, storage/stowage, controls, and shielding.

Results user study

Survey: Car of the future (closed)

We are studiokurbos, a design studio from Stuttgart, and we are concerned with the fact that cars will drive autonomously in the future.

We are interested in how we can use the time, we have gained in which we no longer control the car, can use to ourselves.

For this purpose, we conduct an online survey and cordially invite you to take part.

The user study includes two consecutive surveys on the scenarios “recovery” and “productivity” in the vehicle of the future.

The survey takes a maximum of 5-10 minutes and is anonymous.

Help us to refine the results of the survey and forwoard this survey to your friends and colleagues.