LUCID AUTONOMOUS DRIVING EXPERIENCE
Visual & Interaction Design - Lucid Motors 2015 - 2017
As Lead UX Designer at Lucid Motors, I was responsible for crafting a safe and user-friendly experience for Lucid’s first self-driving vehicle, the Lucid Air.
CHALLENGE
Most drivers have yet to experience an automobile where responsibility is divided between them and the machine. In a partially autonomous vehicle (Level 2-4 autonomy), critical driving tasks are sometimes manual and other times autonomous (e.g. steering, turn signaling, acceleration and braking). The ongoing role changes create a perplexing scenario for even the savviest of drivers—what exactly am I responsible for at this moment? These are tasks where their safety depends on clear understanding of the vehicle’s state. If the Driver falsely believes the vehicle is in control and relinquishes responsibility, the consequences could be catastrophic. With this in mind, I designed an experience that is simple to learn and use, and communicates the system’s status as clearly and fluently as possible.
ResolVING MODE CONFUSION
initiation process
To convey state clearly, the design needs to be contextual and multi-modal (i.e. use visual, sound and haptics). To initiate the self-driving system, the Driver must press-and-hold two paddles on the steering wheel simultaneously. This redundancy helps avoid inadvertent actuation, and therefore mitigates one possible contributor to mode confusion. Certain systems, such as acceleration and braking, may be automated independently of steering. To account for this complexity, the steering wheel design includes lights in order to distinctly indicate the status of self-steering.
Steering wheel lights up to indicate when vehicle is self-steering.
SELF-DRIVING ACTIVE
The design also includes strong visual affordances in the instrument cluster. The UI updates to be contextually relevant for self-driving and is intended to provide the clearest indicator that the vehicle is self-driving. As an added benefit, the UI features a surround view that exhibits the vehicle's perceptive capability. This real-time visualization of the environment builds trust in the system and helps the Driver understand why the vehicle is taking certain actions during autonomous maneuvers.
Handover Process
In order to take back manual control of the vehicle, the self-driving system must assess the Driver's state of readiness. Deliberate intent to resume manual control must be established before the self-driving system will relinquish control. The optimal design calls for a process where the Driver places hands on the steering wheel and then proceeds to depress either the accelerator or brake pedal with eyes pointed towards the road. Each step must be executed in order for the self-driving system to allow the Driver to assume full responsibility.
A researcher at PSA Peugeot Citroën discovered that drivers would almost always grab the steering wheel with one hand before being fully prepared to take back control. In one case, the driver grabbed the wheel with one hand, but continued to read her magazine for a moment. She proceeded to fumble with the glove box to put the magazine away for over 10 seconds while the vehicle continued to drive itself. Only after that did she stare out into the road, assess the situation and press the accelerator. This evidence suggests that an optimal design would not be so quick to hand back control to the human driver.
