An Eye Tracking Based Evaluation Protocol and Method for In-Vehicle Infotainment Systems

In the automotive field, the development of new vehicles is nowadays a challenge for manufacturers, which try to find a trade-off between “beauty of design” and driver safety. Modern cars often have touch displays and hardly any physical buttons. Touch interaction, however, may distract the driver from the road, which is a major safety issue. For the evaluation of the ergonomics of in-vehicle infotainment interfaces, this paper proposes a test protocol and an evaluation method based on eye tracking technology. To the best of our knowledge, there are currently no standard protocols or methodologies for objective assessment of infotainment systems in vehicles. Unlike what often happens, we were able to test our proposals not simply through simulators but implementing actual experiments with real cars, which we believe is an important aspect that characterizes our work.