The TravTek driver information system

Abstract

TravTek is a public sector - private sector program to demonstrate an advanced driver information system in Orlando, Florida for a period of one year, beginning in January 1992. A total of one hundred rental and lease vehicles will be equipped with driver information systems, which will provide navigation, route selection and guidance, real-time traffic information, local information, and cellular phone service. The vehicle electronics include a modified production color CRT with a 5×5 matrix touch screen for information display and entry; a combined dead reckoning and global positioning satellite (GPS) navigation system; a special mobile radio system for sending travel times and status information to the Traffic Management Center (TMC) and receiving real-time traffic and event information from the TMC; a computer for computing shortest travel time routes based on real-time traffic information; and a synthesized voice system for providing traffic and route guidance information. Existing software modules were modified to provide the navigation and route selection functions while other modules were developed to implement the driver interface control functions, the interface menu and guidance displays (both visual and voice), etc. A significant design and test effort went into ensuring that the system is easy to use and understand and that attentional demand while driving is kept to a minimum. Also, special care was taken to retain the original appearance of the production vehicle without sacrificing existing vehicle functionality. Information on driver interactions with the system will be logged on a removable hard drive for later analysis.