Challenges to Human Factors Teams during Vehicle Development

Human Factors teams involved in vehicle development will face numerous challenges throughout the vehicle development process. The cause of these is both internal and external from the developing organisation, external factors would be areas such as regulations and human anatomy, the internal factors would be challenges such as design complexity and resource availability.

Design Complexity

As vehicles get more complex, with more controls and functions, the human factors team must tailor the design to ensure that users can reach all controls whilst improving usability and comfort.
Regulatory Compliance
As the human factors team are designing vehicles for multiple regions, they will need to ensure that the vehicle is compliant with all the relevant regulations and standards across the globe.

Distracted Driving

As with the increase of controls and functions within the vehicle, the development of the vehicle will need to consider how to reduce driver distractions by all these features.

Adapting to Autonomous Vehicles

As the development and adoption of autonomous vehicles increase, the consideration for how occupants will utilise the vehicle during both autonomous travel and manual control needs to be factored into to the design of the vehicle.

Globalisation and User Variability

Vehicles are released to multiple markets and vehicle occupants of that will vary on body dimensions, abilities, and age. This can create multiple challenges around usability and comfort as the human factor experts design for a diverse user base.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Throughout their studies, the human factors team will have to collaborate with key stakeholders, engineers, designers, and regulatory exports. Ensuring that they communicate effectively across the business can become a challenge.

Evolving User Expectations

Due to external influences, users come to expect more from the in-vehicle technology, whilst maintaining safety and meeting their expectations.

To address these challenges will require that the human factors team be capable of adapting to innovative technologies, regulations and trends whilst having effective communication skills. Throughout the development cycle of a vehicle the human factors team are crucial in the role of improving user comfort, usability, and safety of the vehicle.