Car, call me by my name: Effectiveness of using the driver´s own name for in-car voice alerts

Abstract

Summary thesis With increasing automation in vehicles, drivers will mainly focus on non-driving related activities and alerts that demand human intervention in driving must, therefore, be effective to quickly direct attention on the road. This study evaluates the effectiveness in terms of reaction time, accuracy and subjective experience, of in-car voice alerts that are preceded by the driver´s own name. In a set-up with driving videos, 23 participants played a mobile game as a non-driving task and were required to execute actions on the steering wheel and on the brakes when hearing a voice alert. The alerts were always preceded by either participant´s own name or a random (not own) name. An alert with the own name resulted in significant faster reaction time to the instructions and generally received positive subjective ratings. The driving task was executed accurately most of the time, regardless which name preceded the alert. The own name triggers attention and accelerates reaction, which makes it a highly effective and appreciated addition to an alert. Hence, alerts with the driver´s own name should be included in the design and development of safety-critical systems with automation.