A user centered, edge based interaction between humans and autonomous vehicles

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles have advanced rapidly in the last decades. The automotive industry is making valiant efforts to strengthen autonomous vehicle technologies and improve overall road safety. Besides actual safety, feeling safe is equally important. In other words, there is also a socio-technical perspective of self-driving vehicles that should not be ignored. Currently, when pedestrians wish to cross the road, they tend to rely on informal communication with drivers. However, this will not be the case with fully autonomous vehicles as the driver or passenger will most probably execute various tasks and will not pay attention to the road. Consequently, this master thesis investigates the loosely coupled relationship between pedestrians and fully autonomous vehicles in crosswalk use cases with no traffic lights. The main research question that is investigated is "How should the interaction between humans and fully autonomous vehicles be established in order to influence road safety and road awareness?". To address this research question, this master thesis espouses notions used in the scientific field of Interaction Design and applies the goal-directed design approach.