The trend today is to produce automobiles that have exciting systems which enhance the users' driving experiences, however, the distraction potential of these systems has not fully been considered. Since visually demanding tasks carry the highest degree of risk, relative to other categories of tasks, the instrument panel in the private vehicle is a logical starting point for further research. The aim of this study is, from an instrumentation design point of view, to gain a better understanding of how respondents perceive the importance of different driver information and their placement. In a questionnaire study conducted on three different automobile markets, China, Sweden, and United States of America, respondents stated perceived importance and preferred placement (head-up display (HUD), head-down display (HDD), infotainment (IF), and center-stack (CS)) of warnings, driving information, and in-vehicle technologies. The Swedish respondents preferred traditional features and placements and the US safety features concerned driving conditions placed at the HUD location, while the Chinese varied hugely in what was important as well as placements. Besides comfort, safety was quite important for all groups although the Swedish respondents did place a lesser emphasis on safety than the others did.
Godkänd; 2008; 20081203 (phitre)