Evaluation of Vehicle-to-Pedestrian Communication Displays for Autonomous Vehicles

Previous work in human-centered design includes development of interfaces that improve driver effectiveness; however, interfaces designed to communicate to pedestrians based on a vehicle’s perceived intent are limited. For the present work, the authors investigated intent communication for autonomous vehicles by comparing the effectiveness of various methods of presenting vehicle-to-pedestrian street crossing information. A prototype externally-mounted forward-facing display was developed for vehicle-to-pedestrian communication, and an experiment was conducted in a naturalistic setting to compare signaling designs using a simulated autonomous vehicle. In the experiment, a van representing an autonomous vehicle presented information to pedestrians informing them when to cross a street. Participants made crossing decisions from two locations, a marked crosswalk and an unmarked midblock location. Individual differences, including age, gender, crossing location and conscientiousness were predictive of safe crossing decisions. Participant response times were analyzed to determine which display types resulted in the fastest and safest decisions. The results suggest pedestrians will rely on legacy behaviors rather than leverage the information on an external display. A large number of participants, however, believe additional displays will be needed on autonomous vehicles. The results of the experiment can be used to help inform future designs for vehicle-to-pedestrian communication.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AND10 Standing Committee on Vehicle User Characteristics.
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Clamann, Michael
    • Aubert, Miles
    • Cummings, Mary L
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2017

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; Photos; References;
  • Pagination: 13p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 96th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01624345
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 17-02119
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Jan 30 2017 9:54AM