Impact of IVIS on driving performance and safety on the road

Abstract: Automatic Speech Recognition is a state-of-the-art technology which is changing the way people interact with computers nowadays. Automotive industry profits from this technology while using it for controlling the in-vehicles devices, in a so called In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS). It is a problem when IVIS becomes a hindrance instead of assistance, so a system with the least distraction caused while using it, is to be preferred. The three most common interactive modalities of the user interface are: Manual, Auditory-Visual and Auditory only. With the help of a simulator and a prototype user interface we put the three interactive modalities to the test, measuring the distraction from the main task of the driving and performance of the human-machine interaction. A lab experiment conducted with the help of 15 drivers helped us assess the impact of those interactive modalities on driving performance. We found out that IVIS with Auditory only mode causes less distraction than Auditory-Visual mode. The worst mode was Manual which caused more stress, frustration and worse performance in all variables we used in the study. Keywords: ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), IVIS (In-Vehicle Information System), Interactive modalities, Auditory-Visual mode, Auditory only mode, Manual mode. A