Self-driving cars have not yet hit the market, but that is not stopping researchers from developing new features that consumers can take advantage of when the vehicles are released.
Researchers from the University of Waterloo in collaboration with the Waterloo Games Institute have created three games for Level 3 and higher semi-autonomous vehicles. Level 3 and higher autonomous vehicles are those that have environmental detection capabilities and can make informed decisions for themselves.
“As autonomous vehicles start to replace conventional vehicles, occupants will have much more free time than they used to,” said Matthew Lakier, a Ph.D. student in Waterloo’s David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science. “You could use time spent in commute to read a book, watch a movie, get ahead on work, or browse the internet. Still, not everything you do has to be all isolated.”
Researchers created games that can be imposed on top of the actual world, so drivers wouldn’t need to take their eyes off the road. The three games that were developed would be able to be played with other self-driving cars on the road through vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication and heads-up displays (HUDs) that will be standard features in future vehicles.
Future cars will also include virtual reality (VR) driving simulators to render the car cabin, outside environment and roadway with artificially controlled cars and intelligent computer-controlled players. The simulator is designed as a framework to enable rapid prototyping of in-car games that leverage these future technologies.
“Overall, the participants rated the games highly in immersion, there was a positive response to the incorporation of HUDs in the games, and the different game styles did not significantly impact the take-over task completion time,” Lakier said. “All games were popular for different reasons. People were happy to play with strangers. So, for example, they said they could form impromptu relationships with other people on the road.”
