Feasibility of AR-VR use in autonomous cars for user engagements and its effects on posture and vigilance during transit

: Autonomous driving system (ADS) is anticipated to revo- lutionize travel by reclaiming lost time and improve safety on the roads. With automation, user-engagements that enhances road monitoring should be considered to maintain vigilance and safety. From the litera- ture, virtual reality (VR) usage in cars offer productivity and increased privacy. This paper explores the efficacy of passenger use of VR headsets to enhance user-engagement during transit. User-engagement was quan- tified using physiological measures (pupillary response and electrodermal activity) during an in-car VR game/activity experiment. Further, the impacts of engaging with secondary tasks was evaluated using reaction time of pop-up objects. We designed a driving simulation with inbuilt entertaining activities, no-task, game-task, video-task, and mixed-task, played in a real car with a FOVE VR headset on the perimeter track of the Gifu University campus with 15 subjects (average 25.6 years, SD = 6.4). From reaction time, significant difference between tasks was found us- ing one-way ANOVA (F(3,231) = 2.75, p = .0437). A post-hoc test revealed that game and mixed task reaction times were significantly different (p = .0126 and p = .016, respectively) suggesting that task design should consider hazard recognition in a real car. From physiological measures, an increased/sustained effect of user engagement was noted compared with baseline (no-task) suggesting effectiveness in maintaining vigi- lance. The results also reported a 10-fold improvement in sitting posture compared to baseline. The methodology employed is applicable as an indirect measure of engagement that would find use in productivity and vigilance study in an ADS.