Widening the use of the FOT methodology Development based on experiences from the TeleFOT project

The TeleFOT project investigates the impacts of functions brought to the driver by nomadic and aftermarket devices and the methodology chosen is Field Operational Tests (FOTs). The FESTA Handbook was used as the first approach for the implementation, execution and evaluation of the FOTs. The functions tested were Traffic information, Speed Limit Information, Speed Alert, Navigation Support (static), Navigation Support (dynamic), Green Driving Support, and eCall. The characteristics of these functions imply that they must be studied in a wider transportation context than just traffic and cover also transport and travel. Furthermore, the user must be studied in different roles as driver, passenger and traveller and the trip time line must be considered (i.e. trip planning and use during and after the trip). A consequence of that the platform used for the functions was not a vehicle but a nomadic device (to be used in a vehicle but also elsewhere) made it necessary to complement the FOT activities with controlled experiments. This resulted in a proposal for modification of the FESTA Handbook where also the well-known "FESTA V" was expanded to include a block "CONTEXT" to capture the wider use of the functions addressed (i.e. also outside the vehicle) Finally, a new and innovative top-down approach was added to improve the identification of research questions and hypotheses and in order to minimise the work at hand a prioritisation of the hypotheses using a cost-benefit approach was proposed and applied. These three proposed modifications have been accepted and are now found in the latest version 3 of the FESTA Handbook. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of the Programme Committee of the Transport Research Arena 2012