Design and Development of a new HMI for an Automotive Application

The convenience and safety systems in automobiles have played an important role in the vehicle safety and security domain in conformance to motor vehicle standards. A pair of side view mirrors and the inside rear view mirror of a car are indispensable equipments for safe driving as they provide information about obstacles which are the side and rear of a car and on the basis of obstacle information, the driver determines, when he can change lanes and accelerate or decelerate. The driver adjusts mirrors optimally for his physique and driving posture before driving or while driving. The user interfaces for the mirror adjustment often cause distraction while driving leading to take the hands off the steering wheel. It has lead to many instances of accidents during the normal driving conditions as well. Hence, there arises a need to develop a new HMI for controlling the non-critical functionality, which can reduce the distraction while driving. An attempt has been made in this project to develop a new HMI for controlling and adjusting the side view mirrors in a passenger car using sensors.