Exploring human-vehicle communication to balance transportation safety and efficiency: A naturalistic field study of pedestrian-vehicle interactions

While driving behavior is generally governed by the nature and the driving objectives of the driver, there are many situations (typically in crowded traffic conditions) where tacit communication between vehicle drivers and pedestrians govern driving behavior, significantly influencing transportation safety. The study aimed to formalize the tacit communication between vehicle drivers and pedestrians, in order to inform an investigation on effective communication mechanisms between autonomous vehicle and humans. Current autonomous vehicles engage in decision making primarily controlled by on-board or external sensory information, and do not explicitly consider communication with pedestrians. The study was a within subject 2x2x2 factorial experimental design. The three independent variables were driving context (normal driving vs. autonomous vehicle placard), driving route (1 vs. 2), and narration (yes vs. no). The primary outcome variable was driver-yield behavior. Each of the ten drivers completed the factorial design, requiring eight total drives. Data were collected using a data acquisition system (DAS) designed and installed on the experimental vehicle by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. The DAS collected video, audio, and kinematic data. Videos were coded using a proprietary software program, Hawkeye, based on an a priori data directory. Recommendations for future autonomous vehicle research and programming are provided.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Department dc:contributor.department

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Roediger, Micah David

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Geller, E. Scott
• Hickman, Jeffrey S.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Diana, Rachel A.
• Calderwood, Charles

• Autonomous Vehicles
• Human-vehicle interaction
• pedestrian-vehicle interaction

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Dc Identifier Other

vt_gsexam:15858

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/96198