How truck developers use VR for deep UX insights
What looks like a video game is a great tool in automotive user experience research
A steering wheel in your hands, VR glasses on your eyes, you interact with a virtual vehicle, as the landscape seems to fly past. ‘Sounds like a new car racing game’ you might think, but this kind of simulation can do far more than just entertain you. It is one of the virtual reality applications we are using in our research and development efforts in order to shape future transportation technology.
As part of our Daimler Trucks “Deep UX” project, virtual reality is used in a simulator which helps us to improve the user experience of our trucks. The great thing about it: it is a mobile simulator, so we can use it anywhere we want to. Fitted into a Mercedes-Benz V-Class vehicle, it allows us to go anywhere to interact with our target group: truck drivers. It enables us to meet them at motorway stops along their routes — in their usual working environment. As part of the latest project, the drivers can test prototypes of future digital operating menus and new app offers –100% anonymously. While testing, the randomly selected truck drivers wear virtual reality 3D glasses in which they see the digital image of the truck cockpit and driving situations. They can navigate specific systems of the virtual truck with a real multifunction steering wheel in their hands, which is linked to the simulation. But to make this immersive experience possible we went down a long road.
Why we started working with VR
Our simulator is the result of interviews we have regularly conducted with truck drivers in the past. We realised that our results would improve if we used illustrations of the described situations, scenarios and applications in addition to the interview questions. Since then, with each user survey project, our tools have become more advanced and interactive: from animations to interactions, from simulated controls on computers to demonstrators with real steering wheel control — each iteration has brought up new ideas and resulted in further improvements. This process continued until the demonstrator finally became the fully-fledged simulator we’re using today.
To make the driving experience as immersive as possible, we combined VR glasses with a real steering wheel on which we mounted a VR tracker. This tracker places the position and rotation of the physical steering wheel over the one that is displayed in VR. To use the buttons in our virtual cockpit, the test persons see a digital representation of their hands in the simulated environment.
A virtual truck in the open field
In our current test series, we are mainly investigating the user-friendliness of the menu navigation in future cockpit screens and the acceptance of our app portfolio by truck drivers. The prototypes are based on the existing systems of the new Mercedes-Benz Actros truck. During the tests in the mobile simulator, two of our experts from Daimler Trucks are present, observing and recording the reactions and statements of the truck drivers. Additionally, sensors record the movements of the drivers to allow additional insights. One test session takes about 20 minutes and the drivers’ feedback goes directly into our further truck development work.
Of course, a mobile simulator has some technical pitfalls to solve. We had to plan the interior of our test vehicle very carefully so that sensors are not covered and their operation is not impaired when used in the field.
Additional use cases for VR
Through the further development of optical systems, we are getting closer and closer to actual human perception. With each hardware generation new applications open up that were previously not suitable to be displayed in VR due to their requirements. Especially now it is very important to look at applications that we previously excluded from our research, since the possibilities are developing very rapidly. Therefore, simulations will definitely gain importance for user experience and usability testing in the future.
But aside from our “Deep UX” development project, VR has a lot more useful applications in automotive research and development. For example, the technology allows designers to view our vehicles in their original size at a very early stage in the design process. We can implement changes to the virtual vehicle live and assess their design impact directly. Therefore, using virtual reality in simulations is a powerful tool in many use cases — no matter if it is about looking at complex driving scenarios, facing geometric challenges or working on three-dimensional models of future products.
