Creating a smart application system to provide a beneficial maintenance service for elderly drivers

¹ Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UB8 3PH, UK
² Northumbria School of Design, City Campus East, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK

^a Corresponding author : sebin.jung@brunel.ac.uk

Abstract

As overall population ages, elderly drivers have become a larger percentage of the driving population. With this trend, a lot of vehicle systems have been improved for elderly’s safety and convenience using different advanced technologies. However, elderly drivers have often paid more money than other drivers in a car-repair shop due to their lack of knowledge about vehicle systems with modern technologies. Given this fact, developing a tool to diminish this disadvantage and to help elderly drivers maintain their cars with confidence and with minimal cost is necessary. Therefore, this research work mainly focuses on suggesting a system concept on user-interface application, which is connected to a smart phone or a tablet to provide beneficial services anywhere. For the research outcome, diverse research activities – surveys, interviews with small focus groups, observations of the focus groups, and discussions – has been conducted to understand the elderly driver’s difficulties and behaviours regarding vehicle maintenance, to investigate what specific problems make them uncomfortable in repair shops, and to demonstrate how new system-concepts could be developed for the elderly. Furthermore, we conclude that adequate system-concepts for the elderly would offer elderly drivers convenient vehicle repair and maintenance and provide them a confident driving experience.