Effects of a fellow passenger robot on car drivers

To investigate the effects of a car interface robot that behaves like a fellow passenger, we examined the effectiveness of the robot from the view point of psychology, physiology, and driving operations by using a driving simulator. We asked impressions of the driving to the participants after the driving experiments with the fellow passenger robot. Also we measured the car speed, acceleration and steering angle and so on during the driving experiments. The results of questionnaires showed that the driving became more pleasant and cheerful due to the fellow passenger robot. Average speed in the driving experiments with the fellow passenger robot was slower than that without the robot. Therefore, the fellow passenger robot seems to improve the driver´s pleasantness and the driving safety.