WatchOut: A Road Safety Extension for Pedestrians on a Public Windshield Display

TL;DR

This study explores the feasibility and user acceptance of a novel public windshield display as an interactive safety warning tool for pedestrians, revealing general openness but some trust concerns.

Contribution

Introduces a new public windshield display concept and evaluates its usability and acceptance in real-world pedestrian safety scenarios.

Findings

Users are generally open to windshield displays for safety and other content.

Most users would rely on their perception over the display if it were as established as traffic lights.

Trust in the system is a concern despite openness to its use.

Abstract

We conducted a field study to investigate whether public windshield displays are applicable as an additional interactive digital road safety warning sign. We focused on investigating the acceptance and usability of our novel public windshield display and its potential use for future applications. The study has shown that users are open-minded to the idea of an extraverted windshield display regardless the use case, whether it is used for safety purposes or different content. Contrary to our hypothesis most people assumed they would mistrust the system if it were as well established as traffic lights and primarily rely on their own perception.