Supporting Drivers in Truck Platooning: Development and Evaluation of Two Novel Human-Machine Interfaces

Truck platooning has advantages for fuel consumption, road safety, and use of the existing infrastructure. However, it does not simplify the job of the drivers who fear driving in close distance and mistrust the automation. To support drivers in overcoming these issues we present two novel Human-Machine Interfaces (HMI) for truck platooning which we designed using two different methods, User-centered design (UCD) and Konect (a novel design method), to explore creative visualization strategies. We further present the results of our experimental evaluation of both HMIs in terms of trust, hazard avoidance, and visual effort with an eye-tracker. Trust ratings decrease upon a simulated ACC failure for the UCD HMI in 12 categories, while trust with the Konect HMI was only decreased in three categories. Visual effort differed significantly between both HMIs, depending on continuous or static information visualization. A discussion and guidelines for future development are provided.