@CITY - Automated Driving in the City: Communication with other Road Users

Below you will find a short summary of the project. For further information please contact the project managers via the contact button on the right side.

Background

The @CITY research initiative brings together 15 partners from the automotive industry, supply industry, software development and universities. Subdivided into the two projects @CITY and @CITY-AF, concepts, technologies and prototypical applications are developed, enabling automated driving in complex urban areas. The aim is to make the city traffic of the future as safe, comfortable and efficient as possible for all road users. The research initiative is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) with a funding volume of around 20 million euros.

The IAD was represented in the @CITY-AF project and conducted research in the sub-project “Human-vehicle interaction”. This sub-project focused on the interaction between the three protagonists: vehicle users, automated vehicles and other road users. The IAD dealt with the question of how everyday human forms of communication in road traffic (eye contact, gestures, etc.) can be “translated” to automated systems without misunderstandings occurring.

Further information on the project can be found at https://www.atcity-online.de/?language=en

Aims

In order to maintain the flow of traffic and resolve (potential) conflicts, road users communicate continuously through explicit and implicit signals. Although communication between different road users is typical for urban traffic areas, this has only been researched to a limited extent. In the scenario of highly automated driving (SAE L3), the vehicle must assume the communicative function of a human driver. This results in far-reaching questions regarding future communication between vehicle users, automated vehicles and other road users in mixed traffic in urban areas.

Method

The following tasks were carried out in the @CITY project to investigate these issues: First, scenarios in which communication between road users (including motorists, pedestrians and cyclists) occurred were comprehensively described. Subsequently, relevant communication channels for the transmission of information between automated vehicles and other road users were identified. The knowledge gained was then transferred to the design of an automated communication concept and implemented as a prototype. Finally, user studies were carried out, taking into account comprehensibility, safety, acceptance by end users and the targeted nature of communication in urban traffic.

Results

Use cases and scenarios of communication between road users in urban traffic areas were documented in a catalog. The detailed analysis of selected scenarios provides communication sequences that serve as a starting point for the human-centered development of external human-machine interfaces (eHMI) on the vehicle.

The human-centered developments and evaluations of eHMIs of automated vehicles for communication with other road users show that other road users benefit more from eHMI design solutions that not only signal the automation status, but also provide signals about the perception of other road users in the vicinity of an automated vehicle and signals about the intention of the automated vehicle. The eHMI principles developed in the project were presented as an application-oriented catalog of recommendations that can be used to support the development and evaluation of eHMI for automated vehicles in a targeted manner in practice, e.g. by using the eHMI principles as a checklist.

Publications

Wilbrink, M., Cieler, S., Weiß, S.L., Beggiato, M., Joisten, P., Feierle, A. & Oehl, M. (2023). Principles for External Human-Machine Interfaces. Information, 14(8), 463. https://doi.org/10.3390/info14080463

Joisten, P., Müller, A.L. & Abendroth, B. (2023). Forschungsprojekt City-AF – Automatisierte Fahrfunktionen: Schlussbericht zum Teilprojekt TP4: Mensch-Fahrzeug-Interaktion.

Joisten, P. (2023). Untersuchungen zu Verhaltensanpassungen von zu Fuß Gehenden bei der Interaktion mit hochautomatisierten Pkw. [Dissertation] Technische Universität Darmstadt.

Joisten, P., Schwindt, S., Theobald, N. & Abendroth, B. (2022). Pedestrians’ Mental Model Development after Initial Encounters with Automated Driving Systems. In: 33rd European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics (ECCE 2022). 4.-7. Oktober 2022, Kaiserslautern. https://doi.org/10.1145/3552327.3552331

Joisten, P., Theobald, N., & Abendroth, B. (2022). Pedestrians’ Crossing Decisions While Interacting with Automated Vehicles – Insights from a Longitudinal Study. In: 13th International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE 2022). 24.-28. Juli 2022, New York. http://doi.org/10.54941/ahfe1002445

Joisten, P., Theobald, N., Webler, A., & Abendroth, B. (2022). Je mehr eHMI, desto besser? Querungsentscheidungen von Fußgänger:innen an Eimündungen mit Signalen von automatisierten Fahrzeugen. In: 64. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP). 20.-23. März 2022, Köln.

Joisten, P. (2022). Erfahrungseffekte von Fußgänger:innen bei der Interaktion mit automatisierten Pkw – Ein Untersuchungskonzept. In: 68. Frühjahrskongress der Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft. 2.-4. März 2022, Magdeburg, virtuelle Konferenz.

Joisten, P., Liu, Z., Theobald, N., Webler, A., & Abendroth, B. (2021). Communication of Automated Vehicles and Pedestrian Groups: An Intercultural Study on Pedestrians’ Street Crossing Decisions. In: S. Schneegass, B. Pfleging & D. Kern (Hrsg.), Tagungsband Mensch und Computer 2021 (MuC '21). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 49-53. https://doi.org/10.1145/3473856.3474004

Joisten, P., Niessen, P. & Abendroth, B. (2021). Pedestrians' Attitudes Towards Automated Vehicles: A Qualitative Study Based on Interviews in Germany. In: N.L. Black, W.P. Neumann & I. Noy (Hrsg.), Proceedings of the 21st Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2021). Lectures Notes in Networks and Systems, Vol. 221. Cham: Springer.

Joisten, P., Vögler, M.K. & Abendroth, B. (2021). Gewöhnen wir uns an fahrerlose Pkw? Untersuchung der Intention zur Straßenüberquerung von Fußgänger/-innen im kontrollierten Feld. In: A. Huckauf, M. Baumann, M. Ernst, C. Herber, M. Kiefer & M. Sauter (Hrsg.), 63. Tagung experimentell arbeitender Psychologen (TeaP 2021). Lengerich: Pabst Science Publishers.

Joisten, P., Theobald, N., Schwindt, S., Walter, J. & Abendroth, B. (2020). Designing the Communication with Automated Vehicles: The Case of Elderly Pedestrians. In: Workshop on Inclusive Communication between Automated Vehicles and Vulnerable Road Users. In conjunction with MobileHCI 2020.

Joisten, P., Freund, A., & Abendroth, B. (2020). Gestaltungsdimensionen der Kommunikation von automatisierten Fahrzeugen und anderen Verkehrsteilnehmenden. Zeitschrift für Arbeitswissenschaft, 74(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41449-020-00199-7

Joisten, P., Alexandi, E., Drews, R., Klassen, L., Petersohn, P., Pick, A., Schwindt, S., & Abendroth, B. (2020). Displaying Vehicle Driving Mode – Effects on Pedestrian Behavior and Perceived Safety. In: Ahram, Tareq; Karwowski, Waldemar; Pickl, Stefan; Taiar, Redha (Hrsg.) Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Human Systems Engineering and Design (IHSED2019): Future Trends and Applications, Universität der Bundeswehr München, 16.-18. September 2019, München.

Joisten, P., Müller, A., Walter, J., Abendroth, B., & Bruder, R. (2019). Neue Ansätze der Human Factors Forschung im Zeitalter des hochautomatisierten Fahrens. Darmstadt, In: Mensch und Fahrzeug, Technische Universität Darmstadt, 02.-03. April 2019, S. 69-89.

Joisten, P., Barden, J., Becker, A., & Abendroth, B. (2019). Wie wollen Fußgänger mit einem automatisierten Bus kommunizieren? Ergebnisse einer Befragung im Testfeld Bad Birnbach. In: Bericht zum 65. Arbeitswissenschaftlichen Kongress, 27. Februar – 1. März 2019, Dortmund, GfA-Press.