It is argued that there is great commercial value in transferring as much of vehicle-handling qualities assessment as possible from the prototype testing domain to the predictive engineering domain. Man—machine system thinking is necessary to provide a firm basis for progress. Also, the newer opportunities in vehicle chassis engineering to introduce information enhancement and control intervention systems pose human factors problems. It is possible for such systems to do more harm than good. Some descriptions of conventional mixtures of prediction and testing are given and the driving activity is analysed. A conceptual framework involving the specification of vehicle characteristics, which contribute to the subjective judgements made by drivers, is set up. Examples in the categories are explained. The major chassis enhancement systems in production or in late development and their contributions in the various categories are discussed. Quality judgements are shown to be made by a very complex process, containing conflict and requiring very wide-ranging test conditions for the full picture to be revealed. It is considered that a conceptual classification, such as that put forward, is necessary to allow the design of research programmes which will yield fundamental, generic and practically useful results.
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