Master's Thesis: How Human Differences Affect Vehicle Safety

The opportunity

Help make vehicle interactions safer by understanding how drivers and vulnerable road users may interact with vehicle functions in unexpected—but foreseeable—ways.

People differ in their abilities, attention, experience, and behavior. These differences can affect how they use or respond to vehicle functions. In some situations, this may lead to foreseeable misuse and contribute to hazards at the vehicle level and this is an important consideration in Safety Of The Intended Functionality (SOTIF).

By describing relevant human factors and variability, we can better understand potential hazards and improve interactions between vehicles, drivers, and vulnerable road users (VRUs), such as pedestrians and cyclists.

In this thesis, you will study selected vehicle functions involving either a driver or a VRU. You will analyze how people may vary, how this could contribute to indirect foreseeable misuse, and how to capture your findings in a clear, structured specification.

What you’ll work on

• Selection of representative vehicle functions involving drivers and VRUs.
• Carry out hazard analysis and risk assessment in the context of SOTIF (ISO 21448), with a focus on indirect foreseeable misuse and current methods.
• Identify relevant human factors and variability for driver–vehicle and VRU–vehicle interactions.
• Develop structured specification models to describe your findings.
• Evaluate the models with representative users and recommend how the approach could be improved and developed further.

What you’ll deliver

• A specification model describing human factors and variability for selected VRU–vehicle interactions and selected driver-vehicle interactions.
• An evaluation of the models’ reusability, information quality, and relevance to SOTIF.
• Recommendations for further development, governance, and integration into SOTIF processes.

Who should apply

This thesis is suited to master’s students in Software Engineering or Computer Science, Systems Engineering or Safety Engineering, or a related field. You’ll enjoy the topic if you’re curious about how people interact with technology and interested in human factors, misuse scenarios, vehicle safety, Human–Machine Interfaces, or specification methods.

Contact persons and supervisors:

Linda Sandberg, Unit manager, linda.sandberg@scania.com

Soheila Sheikh Bahaei, Thesis supervisor, soheila.sheikh.bahaei.scania.com

Application:

Your application must include a CV, personal letter and transcript of grades

A background check might be conducted for this position. We are conducting interviews continuously and may close the recruitment earlier than the date specified.