Abstract
Keywords - Driver-assistance systems, feedback learning
Truck fuel consumption is more and more in the focus, for economical but also for environmental reasons. The paper provides theoretical and practical considerations about the design of a fuel efficiency support device for truck drivers with a special emphasis on work integrated learning. In particular the paper presents arguments for the claim that such a device must substantially differ from driver-assistance systems in order to make an impact, i.e. user acceptance and the change of driving behaviour.
With regard to their functions, state-of-the-art driver assistance systems can be divided into two categories. First, assistance systems support decision making by delivering (audio or visual) information assisting the driver to decrease uncertainty and to realize decisions (e.g. in the area of navigation). Second, assistance systems aim at making certain tasks or situations simpler but also safer for the driver by either automation (e.g. adaptive cruise control) or indicators that send a signal to the driver when there is a need to respond in a certain way or direction (e.g. shift indicators, collision warning). Instead, the design of the planned device intents to engage the driver into learning.
The background of the paper is an actual joint project in Northern Germany. Continuous data of driver behaviour and engine performance shall be processed and displayed as a feedback with a Human Machine Interface (HMI) in a way to enable truck drivers to adjust their driving behaviour to higher fuel efficiency on-the-job. Effect studies of training courses, yet the most common form of interventions in the driving behaviour of professional truck drivers, revealed evidence that the transfer of training tends to decrease after a relatively short period of time, obviously due to the relevant behaviours and skills work in the form of implicit knowledge. Therefore a device in the cockpit providing a continuous feedback, integrated in the natural working context and sensitive to the driving skills of the driver is considered a considerable improvement.
Some of the topics that are important in this project and that will be addressed in the paper are:
- The quality of learning. It is the intention of the device to initiate and moderate learning which thus leads to a shaping or change of skills, most likely in the form of tacit knowledge.
- Another closely related question is what kind of expertise must be integrated into the device and how? Considering the well known learning concept of deliberate practice, the device must, among other things, be able to identify actions and action sequences appropriate for feedback, i.e. meaningful units of the driving task. Moreover the device must ideally possess some tutorial intelligence in order e.g. to reinforce an improvement of driving skills.
- Another important topic is the impact of the device on traffic safety and occupational health and how negative effects can be avoided.