Navigating Cognitive Workload: Multimodal Evaluation of Infotainment Accessibility in Indian Drivers

The integration of advanced in-car infotainment systems raises essential concerns regarding their influence on the driver’s performance, particularly the cognitive aspects. To address this, our study assessed the cognitive workload (CWL) associated with various infotainment systems using neurophysiological tools such as electroencephalograms (EEG), eye tracking (ET), and galvanic skin resistance (GSR) across three task modes (touch, voice, hybrid), two contexts (driving and static), two infotainment system designs (different cars), and four user tasks (Radio Station, Temperature Change, Calling, Navigation) on a dedicated driving track. This empirical framework provided a realistic and accurate evaluation of cognitive workload and user experience in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) designs. Fourteen participants performed 24 tasks over 50-80 minutes, revealing that touch-based interactions consistently led to higher cognitive load, with touch-based navigation leading to a 14% increase. Voice mode heightened distraction, while hybrid mode resulted in the highest distraction levels (48.12% higher than voice and 17.26% higher than touch mode). Systems without autosuggestion also demonstrated higher workload and distraction. The study recommends using hybrid modes for navigation, physical steering wheel switches for calling, and voice commands for radio when steering-mounted controls are unavailable. Establishing national/international policies and standards, and industry-level certifications for infotainment systems is also recommended. Our limitations included moderation issues, a broad but shallow experimental design, and limited task trials. Future research should focus on detailed experimentation, cognitive load theory-based rating scales, and virtual reality (VR) setups with neurophysiological measurements.