The Driving Experience Lab: Simulating the Automotive Future in a Trailer

Driving simulators are typically used to evaluate next-generation automotive user interfaces in user studies as they offer a replicable driving setting that also allows studying safety-critical and/or future systems. However, this AutomotiveUI experience research is often limited to university or company campuses and their students and staff. To combat that, we introduced a mobile driving simulator lab in a car trailer. We present features but also limitations of this lab, report on experiences after the first days of operation, and discuss further use cases beyond research. During 7 days of user studies with the trailer at a national garden festival, we conducted trials with more than 70 participants from diverse backgrounds. However, executing studies at public events also has its limitations, e.g., on accepted trial duration and potential for biased responses.