The first on-road test of the Mediator system is about to start in Italy, conducted by CRF in close collaboration with FCA (Stellantis) and Capgemini. A group of naive drivers will be exposed to the system to assess the acceptance of and trust in such a system and to test the proposed HMI solutions in practice.

To this end, a prototype of the MEDIATOR HMI has been built into a test vehicle. The experiment uses a Wizard-of-Oz set-up. This means that the test vehicle is a right-hand drive that is operated by a professional driver. The subject sits in the left-hand seat which has non-functional double pedals and steering wheel giving them the impression of driving an automated vehicle. Each subject will “drive” a trip of around 46 kilometres in a combination of urban, rural and motorway conditions.