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Transportation and Automobile Design
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kshitish.purohit@gmx.com |
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Driver Cognition & the Sense of Time
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Guide Dr Bibhudutta Baral |
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Sponsonr Ford Foundation
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My diploma project brief was to study the driver’s behaviour and cognition with a focus
on temporal orientation to improve vehicle safety. The outcome of this project was
envisaged to open up a lot of opportunities in industrial, visual as well as technical
design. I started my research with a thorough literature review and thereafter I carried
out few pilot studies. In the first phase, I tried to get an idea of how different drivers
perceived time and the direct bearing it had on their driving behaviour. Then I studied
the current Indian four-wheeler market with respect to safety features and interfaces
available to analyze vehicle safety and the common perception of safety among Indians.
The third phase of my study was an analysis of four most accident-prone road stretches
of Ahmedabad to understand the factors contributing to accidents on Indian roads. I
selected Tata Indica; one of the most commonly used cabs in Ahmedabad and carried
out the anthropometric, ergonomics and interface audit. My study involved extensive
research on the driver’s mental models, awareness towards safety, technology and
perception of their profession. From the literature review and the pilot studies, I
concluded that there was an urgent need for automobile manufacturers to understand
the psychology of drivers before arriving at design solutions. Through my diploma
project I learnt to incorporate hard-core research, ergonomics and interface design with
interior styling into one single project. Some of the industry standard tools I learnt are
bound to help me in my future endeavours. |
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