Citation

Wintersberger P, Dey D, Löcken A. Front. Robot. AI 2023; 10: e1228093.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Frontiers Media)

DOI

10.3389/frobt.2023.1228093

PMID

37397277

PMCID

PMC10314124

Abstract

An increasing number of automated vehicles will pervade our traffic systems in the future. The absence of a human driver requires these vehicles to communicate and interact with other traffic participants, such as vulnerable road users (VRUs; pedestrians, cyclists, and emerging mobility forms like eBikes or scooters) or drivers of manual vehicles. In this regard, various studies and concepts demonstrating so-called "external Human-Machine Interfaces" (eHMIs) have been presented in the past couple of years. Many of these works have investigated comparably simple scenarios, such as a single pedestrian aiming to cross the street when an automated vehicle is approaching. In the future, research in this area will have to take more complex situations into account. This drives the need for research addressing other situations involving groups of vulnerable road users and traffic participants, different demographics with different accessibility needs, and different scenarios including roundabouts or urban shared spaces, but also exploring the potential of communication and interaction beyond such classical situations to improve cooperation in traffic.

It is critical to contribute to a more systematic investigation of such communication and interaction systems while providing a forum for thought-provoking ideas and concepts on how automated vehicles and "Internet of Things" (IoT) technology can be utilized to increase safety, cooperation, comfort, empathy, and understanding between a wide range of traffic participants.

This Research Topic aims to address the before-mentioned aspects, but also goes beyond by asking questions like: What does ideal communication between traffic participants look like? What characterizes "good" interaction in traffic? Which ideas and principles should guide communication in the future? Are we just eliminating current problems, or are we ready to develop as-yet-uncovered ideas that may shape interaction in the future?

Language: en

Keywords

traffic safety; automated driving; external human-machine interface (eHMI); human-computer interaction; vulnerable road user (VRU)