Articulatory directness Is a wheel really the best way to steer a car

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Articulatory directness? Is a wheel really the
best way to steer a car?

• Alistair D N Edwards
• http//www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/alistair/

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Articulatory directness

• how well the form and behavior of an input
  device (degrees of freedom, range of motion,
  discreteness of states) corresponds to the type
  of input values a user needs to express.
• http//www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/term_1137.t
  xl

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Articulatory directness

• Don Norman, User Centred System Design

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Articulatory directness

• Don Norman, User Centred System Design
• Any nonarbitrary relationship between the form
  of an item and its meaning can be a basis for
  articulatory directness (p.111)
• His example is the mouse.
• The steering wheel is often cited as another
  example
• I want to suggest that steering is not
  nonarbitrary
• In other words, it is (a bit) arbitrary

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Car steering
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Evolution of the steering wheel

• Started in ships
• Migrated to cars

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Ships used to be steered with tillers
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Tiller
Tiller To turn to port
Tiller pull tiller to starboard
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Tiller

• In other words point away from the direction
  you want to turn
• Indirect?
• like using a mouse upside down?
• Or quite natural once you have learnt it?

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Ships wheels
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Wheels in ships

• Maintained the same convention as tillers
• Articulatory direct?

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Titanic movie

• Captain orders Hard a port!
• but the helmsman appears to steer to starboard
• Turned out to be quite authentic

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Articulatory directness

• So, does a car steering wheel maintain
  articulatory directness?

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Steering in cars

• Cars did not always have steering wheels
• Also a variety of arrangements of the other
  controls

http//patentpending.blogs.com/patent_pending_blog
/images/ford_quadricycle.jpg
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Conventional car controls
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Conventional car controls

• First introduced in a Cadillac
• but popularized by the Austin Seven
• (Source Top Gear)

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Conventional car controls

• Great advantage
• Standardization
• But is the steering wheel optimal?

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Mechanics of car steering

• Rack and pinion
• The mechanism and the size of the wheel gives a
  mechanical advantage to make (easy) steering
  possible
• The bigger the vehicle the bigger the wheel

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Power steering

• Fly by wire
• Mechanics not longer involved
• Effector could be almost anything

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Disadvantages of the wheel

• Requires two hands
• Need one hand for other operations
• changing gear
• adjusting heating
• adjusting radio
• interacting with Satnav
• surfing the web

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BMW iDrive

• http//images.automotive.com/reviews/images/05-745
  -idrive.jpg

http//www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/rr-skins/56713-new
-generation-bmw-idrive.html
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iDrive Controversy and Critics

• iDistract or iCrash
• Adapt to the system after about an hour of
  practice?
• Warnings compulsory in USA and Australia

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Aircraft have been using single-hand controls for
years

• http//www.flightsim.com/cgi/kds?main/special/fa
  rnboro.htm

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F1 cars still have a wheel

• Move all the controls onto it
• http//www.aimsports.com/weblog/archives/auto_raci
  ng/

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Modern ships wheels

• http//lighthousedweller.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_a
  rchive.html

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Need to explore the space of controls

• Big turns at low speeds
• Small turns at high speeds

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and then test them

• Student project

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Conclusions

• Steering wheels were useful
• in their time
• Have the (big) advantage of being standard
• but may have other disadvantages
• If we prove something else is better will it be
  adopted?
• or will we forever use qwerty keyboards?

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French lorry-drivers watch TV at the wheel

• French long-distance lorry drivers have sparked
  alarm with a new pastime for beating boredom at
  the wheel watching television.
• From today, police have been ordered to keep a
  close watch on the cabs of poids lourds (heavy
  goods vehicles) after reports that drivers are
  putting their feet up on the dashboard and
  watching videos or playing computer games while
  steaming along at the regulation 90km/h (56mph).
• To take their eyes off the road, they have
  devised a technique for driving by ear,
  according to Le Figaro, which started a scare
  with complaints from motorway maintenance
  workers.
• Related Links
• Huge rise in foreign lorry accidents
• Superlorry is coming your way
• When traffic is not too dense, the driver sets
  the cruise control and puts the lorrys right
  wheels on the band that marks the edge of the
  hard shoulder. These are often ribbed, making a
  noise and alerting sleepy drivers that they are
  heading off the road.
• Le routier then steers by sound, leaving him free
  to watch a DVD, play a game or read, witnesses
  say.
• While the Government was initially sceptical of
  the reports, lorry drivers confirmed them to
  France-Inter, the main public radio. I have seen
  guys reading while driving but I dont know about
  video games. That would seem a bit difficult to
  do, said a routier called Jean-Maurice on the
  A13 Paris-Normandy motorway.
• Another practice is upsetting the maintenance
  workers drivers who avoid pitstops by urinating
  into bottles and throwing them out of the window.
  We are picking up big quantities of bottles of
  urine from the ditches, Romain Fronteau, head of
  the Cofiroute motorway company, said.
• The companies that run the autoroutes are alarmed
  about the danger to their personnel. About 15
  people a year are killed on the hard shoulder and
  maintenance crews are having close shaves. The
  last time, the wheel nuts of a 38-tonner ripped
  open one of our service vehicles like a sardine
  can, said Jean-Michel Perrin, a highway manager
  at Saint-Arnoult, south of Paris.
• Jacques Boussuge, of the association of French
  autoroute operators, said that the group wanted
  penalties for these new types of dangerous
  driving.
• President Sarkozys Government has ordered the
  surveillance of lorry drivers for up to three
  months.
• Driven to distraction
• 40 per cent of Canadians have admitted reading
  or writing while driving
• Last year a British lorry driver was caught
  steering with his knees while he ate spaghetti
  from a pan. He was jailed for eight weeks
• A 2006 Goodyear survey found that 25 per cent
  of Russians have had sex while driving
• Last year the Vermont state representative
  Thomas F. Koch considered passing a Bill
  outlawing playing musical instruments while
  driving after his wife saw a driver playing the
  flute
• http//driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_styl
  e/driving/news/article3142385.ece