易胜博官网

As our cars become more automated, could we turn our commutes into productive 鈥� and safe 鈥� office hours? That鈥檚 the question 易胜博官网 researcher and colleagues from four other institutions will explore with a from the National Science Foundation.

鈥淢illions of people spend nearly an hour of each working day driving to and from work. With automated vehicles, part of this time could be used toward work-related efforts,鈥� says Kun, associate professor of . 鈥淲ith this project, we want to understand how realistic current and future technologies might help us work in automated vehicles and increase the productivity and well-being of workers, as well as the productivity and profitability of firms.鈥�

易胜博官网 will lead the four-year project, collaborating with Harvard University, Wellesley College听and the universities of Washington and Wisconsin.

鈥淎utomated vehicles hold out the promise of significantly improving the safety of driving. They also open up possibilities for using our time in vehicles to rest, to play and to work, because we will not constantly need to focus on the road 鈥� the car will do this for us.鈥�

To understand how technology can allow commuters to safely combine activities related to work with those related to driving, researchers will develop and test a new multi-interface in-vehicle environment in driving simulators and real vehicles. The project will integrate three types of user interfaces 鈥� voice, augmented reality and tangible interfaces 鈥� and will generate design guidelines for researchers, practitioners听and policy makers.

鈥淎utomated vehicles hold out the promise of significantly improving the safety of driving. They also open up possibilities for using our time in vehicles to rest, to play and to work, because we will not constantly need to focus on the road 鈥� the car will do this for us,鈥� Kun says. 鈥淭he question we are asking is this: How do we design the inside of the car to allow us to take advantage of this new-found freedom from driving?鈥� At 易胜博官网, this funding will support a doctoral student and several undergraduate student researchers.

The grant falls under the NSF鈥檚 Future of Work at the Human-Technology Frontier (FW-HTF) initiative, one of the agency鈥檚 . The FW-HTF cross-directorate program aims to respond to the challenges and opportunities of the changing landscape of jobs and work by supporting convergent research.