‘Talking with your Car’: Design of Human-Centered Conversational AI in Autonomous Vehicles

The Development of Fully Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) would fundamentally change the nature of in-vehicle user interactions, behaviors, needs, and activities. Passengers free from driving would expect to undertake diverse Non-Driving-Related Tasks to keep themselves occupied. Introducing Conversational Artificial Intelligence (CAI) in Level 5 AVs could improve the in-vehicle user experience (UX). To explore this, firstly, we identify what roles and relationships can CAI play towards end-users of AVs through end-user interviews and thematic analysis. Secondly, we examine how end-users qualitatively assess the embodied UX of the CAI roles and relationships through guided brainstorming, post simulator interaction experiments employing Wizard of Oz setup and Participant Enactment methods. Results show that Tour Guide, Mentor, and Storyteller were the most preferred CAI roles, and that Human-CAI relationships are maintained if the CAI mediates in-vehicle user activities, interactions, sharing of vehicle control, and deep conversations. We discuss the research implications and propose design guidelines.