New Book by Donal Carbaugh Analyzes How You Communicate with Your Car

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Donal Carbaugh, professor of communication, has published a new book, “Communication in Vehicles.” In it Carbaugh expands on over 10 years of research, analyzing how people interact with their smart vehicles.

Communication between people and vehicles ranges from the basic to the complex. Even vehicular functions that appear trivial can affect a user’s interaction.

“One type of communication problem we addressed was: How would users like to start an interaction with their car?” said Carbaugh.

Cars of an older model, without any voice activation technology or smart software, use a series of “dings” and “beeps” to notify users that it has received or responded to an action or series of commands.

“We found many users wanted to hear a voice rather than a ding and to use their voice in response, rather than push buttons or touch a screen,” said Carbaugh. “So we designed an opening sequence that not only clarifies what is going on for users but also allows different kinds of input from the user.”

Instead of “dings” and “beeps,” the car engages the user with speech-enabled technology for prompts like “What would you like?”; even that was adapted to the more ubiquitous “Yes?”

Carbaugh and researchers were approached by General Motors (GM) and worked with colleagues abroad in Israel and China to implement a voice-activated system in models like the Chevy Equinox MY1.

Another layer to the challenge of smart car communication technology is that not all cultures prefer the same mode of engagement. Striking the right balance between interactivity and efficiency can be a country-to-country situation.

“Chinese users produced very little non-task talk relative to American users,” said Carbaugh. We also found that females in China preferred a more interactive style than did males in China; Chinese males, generally speaking, preferred the system just be efficient.”

Carbaugh and his researchers also have an eye turned toward the future: autonomous vehicles. Cues and prompts for a one-on-one interaction between the driver and the vehicle are relatively straightforward. 

But when passengers are added to the mix, “it gets interesting quickly – who has the right to select music, intervening stops, temperature, and so on,” added Carbaugh. “There is much to explore!”