The Vehicle in the Loop (VIL) is a test and simulation tool to develop and evaluate driving assistant systems. Its greatest advantage is that the VIL combines the real driving \r\nexperience with the safety and replicability of a driving simulator. Initially designed as a developer tool, the VIL was further developed to extend its field of operation to the evaluation of safety systems in the automotive context. For this purpose, the original VIL was reconstructed with the use of new hardware components and a virtual reality \r\nvisualization. To proof that the VIL is capable of eliciting and promoting naturalistic driving behavior, an evaluation study was conducted in which driving scenarios were compared in reality and the VIL. In addition the evaluation study aimed at identifying further development needs. Initially a Head Mounted Display (HMD) with a field of view comparable to the natural field of view was chosen. However, it turned out that the weight and the lack of comfort of the device dominated \r\nthe overall negative feedback given by participants. Thus, in an additional study, a smaller HMD was compared with the first HMD to identify the pivotal features that provide the best visual and wearing experience. Furthermore, the optical head tracker used for measuring the driver’s current head pose turned out to show a time lag which is perceived by the driver and thus affects the driving experience. Therefore, the head tracking hardware was supplemented with gyroscopes to additionally measure the drivers’ head turning rate. Based on the different sensor signals, a sensor fusion algorithm was \r\nimplemented which reduces the lag. An additional reduction is achieved with a prediction of the head pose. In combination, these measures reduced the perceived lag in the head tracking significantly. Due to the virtual reality visualization, the driver has no visual feedback of the car interior. \r\nFurthermore, this visualization creates the feeling of flying over the street. To emphasize the impression of driving a car, a proof of concept for an augmented reality based on video-see-through was developed and evaluated. Hereby, the driver’s view is filmed by a camera which is mounted on the HMD. Before visualizing, the camera image is augmented with the virtual reality, which results in a view of the car’s interior and the virtual reality instead of the windshield’s view. It could be shown that the new concept of augmented reality based on video-see-through has a high potential to make driving in the VIL even more realistic. However, the concept requires further improvement before it can be used for the evaluation of driving assistant systems. Due to the reported advances in technological development, the VIL with virtual reality \r\nvisualization has currently reached a level of technological readiness which enables the VIL to be used as a tool to develop and evaluate automotive safety assistance systems. Future developments show potential to promote naturalistic driving with the VIL even further.    «

The Vehicle in the Loop (VIL) is a test and simulation tool to develop and evaluate driving assistant systems. Its greatest advantage is that the VIL combines the real driving \r\nexperience with the safety and replicability of a driving simulator. Initially designed as a developer tool, the VIL was further developed to extend its field of operation to the evaluation of safety systems in the automotive context. For this purpose, the original VIL was reconstructed with the use of new hardware comp...    »