ICAD: Intention Communication in Automated Driving: What Language Will Automated Vehicles Speak to Humans?

Research Project, 2018 – 2019

Background: Non-verbal human communication (NHC) contributes to transport safety by helping road users understand each other’s intentions. As an example, pedestrians may make eye-contact with drivers to make sure they have the right of way, before they cross an intersection. Gestures are equally important to communicate intentions in traffic and are so effective that their abuse may be fatal. With the introduction of automated driving, driver-passengers will no longer provide NHC but automated vehicles will still need to communicate their intention to other road users (vulnerable road users and drivers of non-automated vehicles).
The goal of this project is to combine expertise from Chalmers (CH) and Göteborg University (GU) to define how technology and human sciences can leverage on each other to 1) understand NHC in traffic, 2) make NHC understandable to machines, and 3) use technology to replace NHC in an increasingly-automated traffic environment.
The long-term aim of this project is to contribute to the safety and acceptance of automated driving by helping automated vehicle communicate their intentions to humans.