Comfort or Not? Automated Driving Style and User Characteristics Causing Human Discomfort in Automated Driving

With highly automated vehicles (HAVs), the human role shifts from active driver to mostly passive passenger, which has an impact on the perceived comfort while being driven. A number of factors need to be taken into account when designing an automated driving style (ADS) with the aim to minimize human discomfort. In this paper, the authors build on seven empirical studies to determine first, if a generally comfortable ADS exists and second, whether such an ADS should be designed depending on situational driving dynamics or individual user characteristics such as users’ manual driving styles. The results give an overview of the ADS- and user-related factors causing human discomfort in automated driving and provide potential strategies to overcome potential discomfort. Drawing on the data, upcoming challenges in the field of human discomfort in HAVs for both research and practice are presented.