Henry
Chen,
Master’s
candidate
David
R.
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science
Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are the future of transportation and they will transform the dynamic of vehicle and pedestrian interaction. Namely, autonomous vehicles need to take the role of drivers in communicating their intention to pedestrians. While researchers and regulators agree such communication can be achieved using visual signals, it is unknown how to do that effectively.
To answer that question, we conducted 4 novel AV and pedestrian interaction experiments involving human participants and the UW Autonomoose research platform. Thereby, we revealed brand-new insights about AV-pedestrian interaction at crosswalks and derived 11 practical design recommendations that promise to enhance the effectiveness of AV visual signals by making them more visible, intuitive, persuasive, and likeable. Ultimately, we hope this work will contribute to the establishment of an international AV light standard, one that will engender trust from pedestrians, thus taking another step toward the maturation of automated driving.