Using Advisory 3D Sound Cues to Improve Drivers' Performance and Situation Awareness

Within vehicle Human Machine Interface design, visual displays are predominant, taking up more and more of the visual channel for each new system added to the car, e.g. navigation systems, blind spot information and forward collision warnings. Sounds however, are mainly used to alert or warn drivers together with visual information. In this study we investigated the design of auditory displays for advisory information, by designing a 3D auditory advisory traffic information system (3DAATIS) which was evaluated in a drive simulator study with 30 participants. Our findings indicate that overall, drivers' performance and situation awareness improved when using this system. But, more importantly, the results also point towards the advantages and limitations of the use of advisory 3D-sounds in cars, e.g. attention capture vs. limited auditory resolution. These findings are discussed and expressed as design implications.