Vulnerable road users and the coming wave of automated vehicles: Expert perspectives
Journal article, 2021

Automated driving research over the past decades has mostly focused on highway environments. Recent technological developments have drawn researchers and manufacturers to look ahead at introducing automated driving in cities. The current position paper examines this challenge from the viewpoint of scientific experts. Sixteen Human Factors researchers were interviewed about their personal perspectives on automated vehicles (AVs) and the interaction with VRUs in the future urban environment. Aspects such as smart infrastructure, external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs), and the potential of augmented reality (AR) were addressed during the interviews. The interviews showed that the researchers believed that fully autonomous vehicles will not be introduced in the coming decades and that intermediate levels of automation, specific AV services, or shared control will be used instead. The researchers foresaw a large role of smart infrastructure and expressed a need for AV-VRU segregation, but were concerned about corresponding costs and maintenance requirements. The majority indicated that eHMIs will enhance future AV-VRU interaction, but they noted that implicit communication will remain dominant and advised against text-based and instructive eHMIs. AR was commended for its potential in assisting VRUs, but given the technological challenges, its use, for the time being, was believed to be limited to scientific experiments. The present expert perspectives may be instrumental to various stakeholders and researchers concerned with the relationship between VRUs and AVs in future urban traffic.

External human-machine interfaces

Position paper

Augmented reality

Virtual reality

Smart infrastructure

Automated vehicles

Author

Wilbert Tabone

Delft University of Technology

Joost De Winter

Delft University of Technology

Claudia Ackermann

Technische Universität Chemnitz

Jonas Bärgman

Chalmers, Mechanics and Maritime Sciences (M2), Vehicle Safety

Martin Baumann

University of Ulm

Shuchisnigdha Deb

University of Texas at Arlington

Colleen Emmenegger

University of California at San Diego (UCSD)

Azra Habibovic

RISE Research Institutes of Sweden

Marjan Hagenzieker

Delft University of Technology

Peter Hancock

University of Central Florida

Riender Happee

Delft University of Technology

Josef Krems

Technische Universität Chemnitz

John D Lee

University of Wisconsin Madison

Marieke Martens

Eindhoven University of Technology

Natasha Merat

University of Leeds

Don Norman

University of California at San Diego (UCSD)

Thomas Sheridan

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Neville Stanton

University of Southampton

Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives

25901982 (eISSN)

Vol. 9 100293

Subject Categories

Mechanical Engineering

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Interaction Technologies

Human Computer Interaction

Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Transport

DOI

10.1016/j.trip.2020.100293

More information

Latest update

12/21/2021