Socializing Cars >> Future Proliferation

To develop the future of socially inspired traffic, we focus on in-vehicle social interactions, by exchanging available data from on-board information systems, driver states, and parameters gathered from the infrastructure. For example, it would be relatively easy for a vehicle to continuously stream status information (e. g., driving speed, position, destination) by wiretapping on-board information systems and navigation devices. Furthermore, a car could provide information about its "health" by taking information from diagnosis systems such as the engine control unit (ECU) or powertrain control module (PCM) (e. g., error codes, condition of engine, tire temperature, oil pressure, etc.). Last but not least are non-invasive tracking devices available (capacitive ECG's, thermal cameras, pressure sensors in the seat, skin conductance sensors in the steering wheel, etc.) that allow for driver social/mental state detection. Related issues include Car-to-Driver Relationship, Car-to-Car Relationship, and Car-to-Infrastructure Relationship.

Assessment

The potential is enormous, given the amount of cars on the road worldwide (which is even higher compared to the number of active Facebook users). The aim of the workshop goes beyond "just presenting Facebook updates" (or social media in general) to the driver which has, in our comprehension, a great potential. To outline one possible (maybe the most primitive) application scenario, with socially inspired car- to-car interaction automatic driver assistance systems would have the foundation to autonomously communicate and negotiate with each other car without driver involvement. We would like to invite researchers to take part in an in-depth discussion of this timely, relevant, and important field of investigation and to share their experiences and views with us...

Topics of Interest

Potential topics to be discussed at the workshop include, but are not limited to:

  • Social norm in the automotive domain
  • Relevant parameters to identify/describe social status or behavior of a car (incorporate the driver?)
  • Modeling techniques for handling social interaction behavior, e.g., traffic superorganism, pheromones, stigmergic behavior
  • Benefit assessment: why should cars (maybe drivers) disclose their 'social status', 'social relationships'?
  • Understanding the potentials of socially inspired car-car communication
  • Crowdsourcing
  • Driving as a "collaboration" with either passengers or an agent
  • Implementation of agents/robots for improving V2V communications
  • The subject of V2V communications (driver to driver?, passenger to passenger?, driver to passenger?, driver to agent?, or agent to agent?)
  • Authentication for in-vehicle social services
  • Privacy, safety, or security issues related to in-vehicle social services
  • Plausible types of information in in-vehicle social services
  • Cultural differences in in-vehicle social services
  • V2V communications as a personal broadcasting station (or system)
  • Other than V2V, including V2I (vehicle to infrastructure using roadside units) or V2B (vehicle to broadband cloud (network))
  • Optimal protocols for social cars (WiFi/802.11p, Bluetooth, Wimax, NFC, etc.)?
  • Incentive based optimizations
  • Improvements triggered by collective behavior