One of the major challenges that autonomous vehicles (AVs) face in an urban setting is communicating with other road users such as pedestrians. In this work, we investigated with what expressive behaviors we can endow AVs such that pedestrians readily recognize the underlying intent of the vehicles' movements. The purpose of our study was to test the impact of expressive stopping behaviors on pedestrians' decision to cross a road. We utilized a virtual reality (VR) environment in which participants would have to cross a street in the presence of an oncoming vehicle that may or may not stop. Next, we crafted several expressive AV behaviors conveying its intention to stop for the pedestrian. Then, for each expressive design we recorded how quickly a pedestrian determined that it was safe to cross the street. We also administered repeated surveys of their subjective experiences. Our findings suggest that expressive behaviors such as easing into a full stop or stopping farther away can help pedestrians make quicker decisions to cross the road. Additionally, stopping farther away from the pedestrian also resulted in higher subjective experience for sense of safety, confidence, and intention understanding. We propose further investigation into expressive behaviors such as easing into a stop and stopping farther away to convey yielding intentions to pedestrians in future work. As a contribution to the field, all VR files used in this research are being open sourced at https://nureality.org.
We present nuReality, a virtual reality "VR" environment designed to test the efficacy of vehicular behaviors to communicate intent during interactions between autonomous vehicles "AVs" and pedestrians at urban intersections. In this project we focus on expressive behaviors as a means for pedestrians to readily recognize the underlying intent of the AV's movements. VR is an ideal tool to use to test these situations as it can be immersive and place subjects into these potentially dangerous scenarios without risk. nuReality provides a novel and immersive virtual reality environment that includes numerous visual details (road and building texturing, parked cars, swaying tree limbs) as well as auditory details (birds chirping, cars honking in the distance, people talking). In these files we present the nuReality environment, its 10 unique vehicle behavior scenarios, and the Unreal Engine and Autodesk Maya source files for each scenario. The files are publicly released as open source at www.nuReality.org, to support the academic community studying the critical AVpedestrian interaction.
Importance: Driving is one of the most important instrumental activities of daily living. As adults age, many face challenges with maintaining independent driving, leading to risk for decreased occupational engagement and quality of life. The extent to which occupational therapy services meet the driver rehabilitation needs of older adults is unknown. Objective: To characterize driver rehabilitation service utilization among a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults. Design: Exploratory, descriptive cross-sectional study using the National Health and Aging Trends Study 2016 wave. Participants: Community-dwelling adults age 65 and older who received rehabilitation services in the past year ( N = 1,173). Outcomes and Measures: Sociodemographic information, comorbidities, rehabilitation use, community mobility, and participation restrictions were collected using self-report and performance-based measures. Results: Of this sample of older adults, 63.0% reported driving as their primary mode of transportation, 25.8% reported limitations in community participation related to transportation, and 9.2% reported having received rehabilitation focused on driving or other transportation goals in the past year. Findings from this study suggest a discrepancy between utilization of driver rehabilitation and self-reported need. Conclusions and Relevance: Many older adults reported limitations in community participation for transportation-related reasons, yet driver rehabilitation represented only a small proportion of services used. As experts in driver rehabilitation, occupational therapy practitioners should lead the way in advocating for increased utilization of driver rehabilitation and development of innovative, accessible transportation options to promote community mobility and participation among older adults. What This Article Adds: The results of this study illustrate an important discrepancy between self-reported need for and utilization of driver rehabilitation services. Occupational therapy practitioners can play an important role in meeting older adults’ driving and transportation needs to enable them to fully participate in their community and daily routines.
Date Presented 03/26/20 This descriptive, cross-sectional study aims to characterize current need and utilization of driver rehabilitation services among a nationally representative sample of community-dwelling older adults. Overall findings suggest that the need for driver rehabilitation services is unmet within this population. Results from this study provide empirical evidence to support future OT practice and policy recommendations to improve older adult community mobility and participation. Primary Author and Speaker: Elizabeth Marfeo Contributing Authors: Amelia Coffey, Nathan Ward
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