Interaction of Autonomous and Manually-Controlled Vehicles:Implementation of a Road User Communication Service

TL;DR

This paper introduces a Road User Communication Service platform enabling information exchange between autonomous and manual vehicles, validated through field tests to improve road safety and trust in automated vehicles.

Contribution

It presents a novel software platform facilitating communication between different vehicle automation levels, validated by real-world testing on a test track.

Findings

Field tests confirmed the platform's feasibility for vehicle communication.

The service successfully enabled autonomous vehicles to request driver status.

The approach enhances understanding and safety in mixed-traffic scenarios.

Abstract

Communication between vehicles with varying degrees of automation is increasingly challenging as highly automated vehicles are unable to interpret the non-verbal signs of other road users. The lack of understanding on roads leads to lower trust in automated vehicles and impairs traffic safety. To address these problems, we propose the Road User Communication Service, a software as a service platform, which provides information exchange and cloud computing services for vehicles with varying degrees of automation. To inspect the operability of the proposed solution, field tests were carried out on a test track, where the autonomous JKU-ITS research vehicle requested the state of a driver in a manually-controlled vehicle through the implemented service. The test results validated the approach showing its feasibility to be used as a communication platform. A link to the source code is available.