eHMI visualization on the entire car body: results of a comparative evaluation of concepts for the communication between AVs and manual drivers

Abstract

Automated driving, in particular in mixed traffic, comes with the problem of partially missing face-to-face interaction between driver and other road users when in automated mode (SAE L3+). The lack of confirmation from a driver-passenger of an automated vehicle (AV) to have seen a manual vehicle and that its driver can therefore overtake, change lane, or cut in safely can lead to dangerous situations and severe accidents. In this work, we propose the vehicle to take-over and support this communication demand. To better understand communication needs and user requirements we developed different concepts for external human-machine interface (eHMI) visualizations on the entire car body and investigated their potential in a user study (N=24). Our results suggest that novel concepts to take charge of the communication between AV and the driver of a manual car have great potential, are clearly understood by subjects, and are rated superior to the ordinary communication with headlight flashers only.