Can You Hazard a Guess?: Evaluating the Effect of Augmented Reality Cues on Driver Hazard Prediction

Semi-autonomous vehicles allow drivers to engage with non-driving related tasks (NDRTs). However, these tasks interfere with the driver’s situational awareness, key when they need to safely retake control of the vehicle. This paper investigates if Augmented Reality (AR) could be used to present NDRTs to reduce their impact on situational awareness. Two experiments compared driver performance on a hazard prediction task whilst interacting with an NDRT, presented either as an AR Heads-Up Display or a traditional Heads-Down Display. The results demonstrate that an AR display including a novel dynamic attentional cue improves situational awareness, depending on the workload of the NDRT and design of the cue. The results provide novel insights for designers of in-car systems about how to design NDRTs to aid driver situational awareness in future vehicles.