While traffic signals, signs, and road markings provide explicit guidelines for those operating in and around the roadways, some decisions, such as determinations of “who will go first,” are made by implicit negotiations between road users. In such situations, pedestrians are today often dependent on cues in drivers’ behavior such as eye contact, postures, and gestures. With the introduction of more automated functions and the transfer of control from the driver to the vehicle, pedestrians cannot rely on such non-verbal cues anymore. To study how the interaction between pedestrians and automated vehicles (AVs) might look like in the future, and how this might be affected if AVs were to communicate their intent to pedestrians, we designed an external vehicle interface called automated vehicle interaction principle (AVIP) that communicates vehicles’ mode and intent to pedestrians. The interaction was explored in two experiments using a Wizard of Oz approach to simulate automated driving. The first experiment was carried out at a zebra crossing and involved nine pedestrians. While it focused mainly on assessing the usability of the interface, it also revealed initial indications related to pedestrians’ emotions and perceived safety when encountering an AV with/without the interface. The second experiment was carried out in a parking lot and involved 24 pedestrians, which enabled a more detailed assessment of pedestrians’ perceived safety when encountering an AV, both with and without the interface. For comparison purposes, these pedestrians also encountered a conventional vehicle. After a short training course, the interface was deemed easy for the pedestrians to interpret. The pedestrians stated that they felt significantly less safe when they encountered the AV without the interface, compared to the conventional vehicle and the AV with the interface. This suggests that the interface could contribute to a positive experience and improved perceived safety in pedestrian encounters with AVs – something that might be important for general acceptance of AVs. As such, this topic should be further investigated in future studies involving a larger sample and more dynamic conditions.

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A user acceptance questionnaire study was carried out during the first phase of the Shared Shuttle Services (S3) pilot project in Gothenburg Sweden. Autonomous vehicles in the form of shuttle buses (AV shuttles) embody three major developments in transportation: mobility solutions that are electrified, shared, and automated. The adoption of these three developments is closely connected to the UN SDG (11) Sustainable cities and communities and in order to achieve any broader societal benefits, it is crucial to understand and address user acceptance and adoption of these services in real-life settings. The questionnaire included attitudinal and context specific questions, resulting in overall high ratings except for perceived speed and comfort. Still, the main reasons for not wanting to use the AV shuttle services could be linked to performance expectancy, route reasons and effort expectancy. Future implementations of AV shuttles will need to address this in order to expect any widespread adoption.

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