Exploration of Multi-Touch Sliding Gesture Usage in In-Vehicle Infotainment System

Although more and more functions are integrated into the center touch screens, many researchers have proved that touch screens might distract drivers’ attention and cause accidents. Voice controls were also proved mentally straining and takes long interaction times.This article explored the practicability of multi-touch sliding gesture operations, basing on multi-touch screens or touchpads that are already widely used in vehicles. We built a multi-touch sliding gesture In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) system and a traditional touch IVI system, then evaluated them from both subjective and objective perspectives. The results are very positive: by using sliding gesture operations, the eye off-road time reduced 87.3%, the off-lane counts reduced 86.84% and the accident rate reduced from 7.5% to 0%. The driving activity load score reduced by more than half and the User Experience Questionnaire scored 2 ranks better.