Deriving Non-Driving-Related Activities in Highly Automated Driving via an Autoethnographic Approach by Traveling Canada in a Recreational Vehicle

Automated vehicles will alter traffic fundamentally. Users can engage in various activities, such as working, reading, or sleeping. However, based on these activities, there are challenges and opportunities to adapt the vehicle, possibly transforming these into “tiny houses”. Some activities will most likely be conducted, especially those already undertaken, such as making phone calls or listening to music. However, there are limited possibilities to derive activities occurring in longer trips or with a high level of automation. Therefore, we propose to derive non-driving-related activities based on a 12-day trip in a camper as a surrogate for prolonged exposure to automated driving. We report the autoethnographic results of our experiences and deduce relevant future research questions. We highlight the possibility of employing Vanlife as a method to study these upcoming challenges.