Pedestrian study gauges reactions to visual prompts on ghost driven ‘autonomous’ car

The study sought to understand how pedestrians respond to self-driving vehicles with visual displays dubbed External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMIs) positioned on the front of the vehicle,

To do this, a car was driven around the university’s Park Campus over several days with a so-called ‘ghost-driver’ concealed in the driver’s seat. A series of different designs projected onto the eHMI informed pedestrians of the car’s behaviour and intention, including expressive eyes and a face, accompanied by short text-based language such as “I have seen you” or “I am giving way”.

The eHMI was controlled by a team member in the back seat, while front and rear dash cam footage was collected to observe pedestrians’ reactions in real time. Additionally, researchers were placed at four crossing points to ask pedestrians to complete a short survey about their experience of the vehicle and its displays.

In a statement, David R. Large, senior research fellow with the Human Factors Research Group at Nottingham University, said: “As part of the ServCity project, which created a blueprint infrastructure for autonomous vehicles in the UK, we wanted to explore how pedestrians would interact with a driverless car and developed this unique methodology to explore their reactions.