Comparison of an old and a new Head-Up Display design concept for urban driving

In the future, full use of advanced driving assistance systems will move from highways and freeways to urban areas. This additional assistance systems use case may require the communication of additional information and warnings. Consequently, how information is currently presented in head-up displays will need to change in order to not visually overload the driver. Current head-up design concepts are usually arranged in three clusters: the driven speed, navigation information, and various assistance systems. The new design concept needs to be more generic, driver-focused, and action-orientated. For this experiment, an old design concept and a potential new one were compared in terms of reaction time, response accuracy, and a subjective evaluation. Thirty participants (N =30) performed an occlusion task and a choice reaction time task to find possible differences between the designs. Statistical tests were performed to examine global and specific accuracy. The occlusion task showed no significant difference between the two designs. However, the new design yielded better CRT performance in terms of response accuracy and reaction times. Then again, the subjective measures showed an advantage of the old HUD design. In conclusion, this paper shows the benefits and downsides of a new urban HMI concept.