Applying Participatory Design to Symbols for SAE Level 2 Automated Driving Systems

Automakers take the risk of designing their own symbols for adaptive cruise control (ACC) and lane centring assist (LCA), some of them even using symbols from other driving assistance systems. Doing so exposes drivers to potential confusion and poses a threat to safety. A user-centred approach allowed us to gather information on ways to design intuitive symbols for users of automated vehicles. We invited drivers to a participatory design workshop to ideate and review existing symbols used for ACC and LCA. Here, we report our first step towards the development of recommendations for the design of driver-vehicle interfaces (DVI) of SAE level 2 and 3 systems.