Findings from subjective evaluations and driver ratings of vehicle dynamics: steering and handling

This paper investigates subjective assessments (SA) of vehicle handling and steering feel tests, both numerical and verbal, to understand drivers' use of judgement scales, rating tendencies and spread. Two different test methods are compared: a short multi-vehicle first-impression test with predefined-driving vs the standard extensive single-vehicle free-driving tests, both offering very similar results but with the former saving substantial testing time. Rating repeatability is evaluated by means of a blind test. Key SA questions are identified by numerical subjective assessment autocorrelations and by generating word clouds from the most used terms in verbal assessments, with both methods leading to similar key parameters. The results exposed in this paper enable better understanding of SA, allowing improving the overall subjective testing and evaluation process, and improving the data collection and analysis process needed before identifying correlations between SA and objective metrics.