The environment surrounding automotive technology is undergoing a major transformation. In particular, as technological innovation advances in new areas called “CASE” such as Connected, Autonomous/Automated, Shared, and Electric, various research activities are underway. However, this is an approach from the standpoint of the automobile centered, and when considering the development of a new automobile society, it is necessary to consider from the standpoint of “human centered,” who are users, too. Therefore, this paper proposes the possibility of technological innovation in the area of “Another CASE” such as Comfortable, Accessible, Safety, and Enjoy/Exciting, and introduces the contents of some interesting researches.

Driving safety related innovations received increasing interest from automotive industry. We performed an experiment to observe what situations are related to the secured feelings drivers feel when they drive, and found out that drivers need to have four to seven seconds to react possible collision when they operate onboard Human Machine Interface (HMI) devices and check display devices. We explored the distance of semantic space to see what factors of HMI interaction lead to the secured feeling in that time period, and extracted 32 types of factors that lead to the secured feelings. Furthermore, in the process of investigating the semantic space distance, the indicators relating to the secured feelings obtained in the prior studies were further determined to be ‘The layout of the operation device is the same as the driver's image' and ‘The driver can use the word he uses every day to give instructions’ in this time period.’, which were more concrete factors of the secured feelings.

This study explored the question of how to minimize older drivers' accidents and to identify at-risk drivers by analyzing their driving performance. Previous traffic research reported that there were two factors involved in risky driving, namely driving risk perception and risky driving attitude. We investigated these two factors as indicators of an at-risk driver by using large-scale test data from license renewal tests that are obligatory for Japanese drivers who are 70 years of age or older. The tests include a driving simulator test, an on-road test, and a cognitive screening test. By using these assessments and predictions made with renewal driving tests, we were able to indicate the possibility of identifying at-risk drivers.

Establishing drivers' trust in the automated driving system is critical to the success of automated vehicles. The focus of this paper is learning what drivers of automated vehicles need to feel confident during braking events. In this study, 10 participants drove a test vehicle and each experienced 24 different deceleration settings. Prior to each drive, it was indicated to each participant what the expected brake starting and stopping positions would be. During each drive, participants maintained a set speed, and then stopped the vehicle when they saw a signal to apply the brakes. After each drive, the participants were asked what their perceived safety level was during the deceleration setting they just experienced. The results revealed that ‘jerk’ movements have significant influence on drivers' perceived safety. For this study, we have named this jerk movement impression jerk (IJ). Using IJ, clearly divides the secure and anxious feelings of the drivers along with individual differences.