Game Theoretic Analysis of Road User Safety Scenarios Involving Autonomous Vehicles

TL;DR

This paper uses game theory to analyze interactions between pedestrians, vehicles, and autonomous cars, providing insights into traffic safety and suggesting new regulations for better urban traffic management.

Contribution

It introduces game theoretical models to analyze traffic interactions involving autonomous vehicles and pedestrians, offering a novel approach to traffic safety analysis.

Findings

Simulated behaviors align with theoretical predictions

Identified key factors influencing vehicle-pedestrian interactions

Proposed regulatory implications for autonomous vehicle integration

Abstract

Interactions between pedestrians, bikers, and human-driven vehicles have been a major concern in traffic safety over the years. The upcoming age of autonomous vehicles will further raise major problems on whether self-driving cars can accurately avoid accidents; on the other hand, usability issues arise on whether human-driven cars and pedestrians can dominate the road at the expense of the autonomous vehicles which will be programmed to avoid accidents. This paper proposes some game theoretical models applied to related traffic scenarios. In the first two games the reciprocal influence between a pedestrian and a vehicle (either autonomous or not) is analyzed, while the third game investigates the intersection of two vehicles, possibly autonomous. The games have been simulated in order to demonstrate the theoretical analysis and the predicted behaviors. These investigations can shed new lights on how novel urban traffic regulations could be required to allow for a better interaction of vehicles and a general improved management of traffic and communication vehicular networks.