As automated vehicles (AVs) progress toward real-world deployment, user comfort will play a critical role in their acceptance and long-term use. But what makes a ride feel natural, smooth, or even trustworthy? This talk presents findings from multiple studies examining how driving style, vehicle control, and environmental context shape passenger comfort in AVs, particularly for older adults and other vulnerable users. Using both real-world (Wizard-of-Oz) rides and simulator-based experiments, we explore how kinematic and proxemic features — such as acceleration, lane position, and steering — influence perceptions of comfort and naturalness. We’ll also examine how user comfort shifts across traffic scenarios (e.g., stops, curves, speed transitions) and whether users prefer AVs that mimic their own driving style. The results offer design insights for engineers developing AV controllers and deceleration profiles that feel “human-like,” safe, and intuitive. If we want people to ride in AVs, we need to design vehicles that ride like people expect.
By engineers, for engineers: A technically grounded guide to the rapidly evolving in-cabin technology industry and companies.
