Virtual Reality for Vehicle Performance Evaluation in European Driving Scenarios.

During the last decade, virtual reality (VR) has become a tool used for several applications, from educational to medical, while keeping an eye on gaming and amusement. Lately, VR has established itself as an efficient tool in the automotive field as well. Researchers started to look at VR as a means of accelerating some processes, making them more efficient. In this thesis, I would like to show how VR can be used for the evaluation of the ergonomics of vehicles in the early phases, proving that the production of physical prototypes, which is very time-consuming and cost-consuming, can be delayed. In addition, some situations cannot be evaluated in reality because they are too dangerous or complex to reproduce. To achieve this goal, during my project I produced a series of synthetic scenarios -- meaning built in 3D graphics -- in which the virtual vehicle prototype has been placed in order to evaluate it in all these kinds of situations. To test the effectiveness of the scenarios and of the project itself, I showed the evaluation of a windshield wiper, which was corrected before being produced. I also compared two different cars, showing how the body can obstruct the driver's field of view and proving that, using VR, we can prevent certain situations from happening. Finally, I performed a user testing, to get feedback about the helpfulness of the VR as a tool to evaluate vehicle ergonomics, and about the work itself, in particular, scenarios and system usability.