The projects are part of the collaborative project Connect& Drive, funded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs through the High Tech Automotive Systems programme, starting at October 1st, 2008. The Connect& Drive project is a collaboration between Dutch companies and universities, aiming at developing technology for Cooperative Advanced Cruise Control (C-ACC). Together with a PhD project at the department Mechanical Engineering of Technische Universiteit Delft, the projects constitute the Work Package on Human Factors of  C-ACC.
The general aim of the research on Human Factors is to identify success factors for the acceptance of C-ACC systems.

Project 1 focuses on C-ACC systems that provide drivers with advice about what speed to apply to optimize throughput. Through model simulations and user studies with simulators relevant factors need to be identified that are relevant to the What, When and How of speed advice in C-ACC systems. These insights need to be translated into concepts for providing effective multi-modal speed advice that will be evaluated through user studies in simulators and field tests.

Project 2 focuses on autonomous C-ACC systems and investigates key factors influencing the driver’s decision to hand over executive control to the C-ACC system. The aim is to come up with a model that predicts the decision of the driver to hand over or withdraw executive control based on driver characteristics, interface properties and the environment.

Candidates should have a Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Industrial Design, Cognitive Psychology or similar, focusing on the area of Human-Computer Interaction, with excellent grades (first class honours or equivalent). Other key attributes include good analytic, synthetic, experimental and programming skills, the ability to devise and evaluate prototypes, and excellent social and team working skills.

The department of Industrial Design of the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), founded in 2001, is a rapidly growing department with over 500 students, both Bachelor and Master, and around 150 staff members. With a strong emphasis on research the ID department focuses on the design of intelligent products, systems, services and networks. These innovative products enable people to interact with their environment in an optimal and flexible way. The TU/e ID engineer, who has developed a wide range of competencies during his/her education, is capable of integrating technology, user aspects, design and business/marketing insights. This MSc-program is practice oriented, capable to deal with and aware of relevant issues as formulated by industry and society at large. Ambient Intelligence and Ambient (health) Care draw special attention within the TU/e and ID particular, and is an important research and application field. ID encompasses four areas: Technology covered by the Designed Intelligent (DI) group, User aspects, covered by User Centered Engineering (UCE) group, Design, covered by the Designing Quality in Interaction (DQI) group, and Business, covered by the Business Process Design (BPD) group.