Affective Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction

The integration of autonomous vehicles (AVs) into urban pedestrianised areas requires social acceptance. This project investigates how affective human-machine interfaces (HMIs) for AVs can support the social interactions between pedestrians and AVs in pedestrian-centred urban environments.

This project encompasses various modes of inquiry, including observation of an extensive naturalistic autonomous driving video dataset captured in several real-world urban areas through AV-mounted cameras, domain-expert focus groups devising user scenarios and emotional expressions on AVs, online crowdsourced survey evaluating video prototypes of scenario-based emotional “eyes” of AVs, and lab studies using virtual reality simulations to examine the quality of pedestrian experience. Through findings from these studies, the goal is to understand the design and the impact of affective HMIs for shaping a more sociable and safer pedestrian-AV interaction experience in cities.