AutoWSD: Virtual Reality Automated Driving Simulator for Rapid HCI Prototyping

Human factors research in automated driving is nowadays often conducted using either low-quality setups such as 2D monitors or highly expensive driving simulators with motion platforms. Additionally, software for automated driving scenarios is often expensive and hard to modify for different scenarios. We intend to bridge this gap by proposing a low-cost, high-fidelity immersive prototyping solution by utilizing the recent advances in development of virtual reality (VR): AutoWSD - Automated driving simulator for research on windshield displays. We showcase a hybrid software and hardware solution that is based on the popular and widely used Unity development platform. Furthermore, we demonstrate the little effort needed to create scenarios for user studies, and thereby foster discussion about potential improvements and extensions for AutoWSD, as well as the topic of trust, acceptance, user experience and simulator sickness in automation.