Response of Vulnerable Road Users to Visual Information from Autonomous Vehicles in Shared Spaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates how autonomous vehicles can communicate with vulnerable road users through visual cues, analyzing pedestrian behavior to improve safety and trust in shared spaces.

Contribution

It develops algorithms for automatic analysis of pedestrian body language and assesses the necessity of visual communication cues in shared spaces with AVs.

Findings

Visual cues are not always necessary for safe interaction in shared spaces.

Behavioral analysis can inform better AV design for VRU safety.

Shared spaces with informal rules can operate safely without explicit visual communication.

Abstract

Completely unmanned autonomous vehicles have been anticipated for a while. Initially, these are expected to drive only under certain conditions on some roads, and advanced functionality is required to cope with the ever-increasing challenges of safety. To enhance the public's perception of road safety and trust in new vehicular technologies, we investigate in this paper the effect of several interaction paradigms with vulnerable road users by developing and applying algorithms for the automatic analysis of pedestrian body language. We assess behavioral patterns and determine the impact of the coexistence of AVs and other road users on general road safety in a shared space for VRUs and vehicles. Results showed that the implementation of visual communication cues for interacting with VRUs is not necessarily required for a shared space in which informal traffic rules apply.