Safety means letting passengers know that the vehicle is aware of its surroundings and that it can safely handle all driving scenarios. Motion anticipation enables passengers to anticipate the movements of the vehicle by adjusting and stabilizing the body to avoid or mitigate motion sickness. But what is the best way to help passengers anticipate motion? The Rinspeed Snap proved to be the perfect vehicle to experiment and test different concepts. An innovative autonomous robotaxi designed as a configurable, shared living room on wheels, the Rinspeed Snap uses TomTom HD Maps to power its autonomous driving system, enabling a safe and comfortable experience. One of its main functions is to inform passengers of the route of the vehicle and of its planned motion.
TomTom MotionQ is a set of visual cues that enable passengers to anticipate an autonomous vehicle’s motion, including the vehicle’s path, turns and acceleration, as well as road elements of the TomTom HD Map such as road borders, lanes, markings, centerlines, traffic signs and traffic lights.
Front-facing passengers are presented with a view of the world as seen from the robotaxi’s front-facing camera, while ear-facing passengers are presented with a minimalistic and optimized map view coupled with a visual cue at the bottom of the screen that helps them anticipate and adjust to the vehicle’s motion.
Another important consideration for shared autonomous vehicles is that passengers must be able to always monitor and explore their route. Passengers need to be able to check their ETA, see where the next passenger will be picked up and explore points of interests (POIs) along their route.
The full article by Paul Schouten & Tomaso Grossi is available here and more information is available on TomTom’s website.
Photo credits: TomTom
