In the Passenger Seat: Investigating Ride Comfort Measures in Autonomous Cars

The prospect of driverless cars wide-scale deployment is imminent owing to the advances in robotics, computational power, communications, and sensor technologies. This promises highway fatality reductions and improvements in traffic and fuel efficiency. Our understanding of the effects arising from commuting in autonomous cars is still limited. The novel concept of the loss of driver controllability is introduced here. It requires a reassessment of vehicle's comfort criteria. In this review paper, traditional comfort measures are examined and autonomous passenger awareness factors are proposed. We categorize path-planning methods in light of the offered factors. The objective of the review presented in this article is to highlight the gap in path planning from a passenger comfort perspective and propose some research solutions. It is expected that this investigation will generate more research interest and bring innovative solutions into this field.