A new Instrument Cluster Animation to ccompany the Monostable Electronic Gear Shifter in the 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Disclaimer: This project was done to fulfill requirements for SYDE 543, Cognitive Ergonomics at the University of Waterloo.
The 2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee’s monostable electronic shifter received large amounts of criticism after 306 incidents of vehicle rollaway and 117 vehicle crashes were attributed to this shifter. A well known accident involving this shifter was the death of Star Trek actor Anton Yelchin, who was pinned against a brick wall by his car after it rolled away in neutral.
The original problem was that the vehicle's shifter did not provide sufficient feedback to the driver on the gear position of the vehicle. A fix was implemented by FCA, which involved automatically shifting the into Park when certain states were detected. However, in my opinion after an analysis from a cognitive ergonomics perspective, a better design could have been implemented.
This is a mockup of what a more descriptive instrument cluster could look like. This design helps the user understand the problem and guide them to correctly shift the vehicle into Park. Even though a "fix" was implemented by FCA, this design will still be beneficial since it trains the user to shift the vehicle properly. More details into this design can be found on https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0876d-XyG6JQ09tWERZZ3NIVjA
Instrument Cluster base image source: http://images.hgmsites.net/lrg/2016-jeep-grand-cherokee-4wd-4-door-laredo-instrument-cluster_100544050_l.jpg
The design above illustrates an animation to help drivers form the habit of properly shifting their vehicle into Park. This habit will be beneficial to the driver, especially if they drive another car without an Auto-Park feature. The design can be implement through a software update and is able to be implemented using the digital screen on the cluster.
Additional details can be found in this report: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0876d-XyG6JQ09tWERZZ3NIVjA
