Digital Human Modelling, Occupant Packaging and Autonomous Vehicle Interior

The biggest advantage of autonomous driving is the value added free time that the users would enjoy during travel. Research shows that the users would use this time to participate in different non-driving activities: which include resting, sleeping, using smartphone, reading for pleasure, working and the most common activity, i.e. looking outside the window and enjoying the landscape. The challenge for the automotive industry however is to develop vehicle interior and seating concepts to facilitate the different ergonomic seating postures, which would allow the users to pursue these activities for a longer period. The paper helps to understand why digital human modelling and occupant packaging would be of increasing importance in the interior development of autonomous driving vehicles. Discussed in the paper are proposed tools which when implemented would aid the interior development of vehicle interior in the virtual phase and would help to recognize vehicle integration and package problems earlier on in the vehicle development phase.