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From Passersby to Placemaking: Designing Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Encounters for an Urban Shared Space

Yiyuan Wang, Martin Tomitsch, Marius Hoggenmüller, Senuri Wijenayake, Wai Yan, Luke Hespanhol

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) tend to disrupt the atmosphere and pedestrian experience in urban shared spaces, undermining the focus of these spaces on people and placemaking. We investigate how external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) supporting AV-pedestrian interaction can be extended to consider the characteristics of an urban shared space. Inspired by urban HCI, we devised three place-based eHMI designs that (i) enhance a conventional intent eHMI and (ii) exhibit content and physical integration with the space. In an evaluation study, 25 participants experienced the eHMIs in an immersive simulation of the space via virtual reality and shared their impressions through think-aloud, interviews, and questionnaires. Results showed that the place-based eHMIs had a notable effect on influencing the perception of AV interaction, including aspects like visual aesthetics and sense of reassurance, and on fostering a sense of place, such as social interactivity and the intentionality to coexist. In measuring qualities of pedestrian experience, we found that perceived safety significantly correlated with user experience and affect, including the attractiveness of eHMIs and feelings of pleasantness. The paper opens the avenue for exploring how eHMIs may contribute to the placemaking goals of pedestrian-centric spaces and improve the experience of people encountering AVs within these environments.

From Passersby to Placemaking: Designing Autonomous Vehicle-Pedestrian Encounters for an Urban Shared Space

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) tend to disrupt the atmosphere and pedestrian experience in urban shared spaces, undermining the focus of these spaces on people and placemaking. We investigate how external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) supporting AV-pedestrian interaction can be extended to consider the characteristics of an urban shared space. Inspired by urban HCI, we devised three place-based eHMI designs that (i) enhance a conventional intent eHMI and (ii) exhibit content and physical integration with the space. In an evaluation study, 25 participants experienced the eHMIs in an immersive simulation of the space via virtual reality and shared their impressions through think-aloud, interviews, and questionnaires. Results showed that the place-based eHMIs had a notable effect on influencing the perception of AV interaction, including aspects like visual aesthetics and sense of reassurance, and on fostering a sense of place, such as social interactivity and the intentionality to coexist. In measuring qualities of pedestrian experience, we found that perceived safety significantly correlated with user experience and affect, including the attractiveness of eHMIs and feelings of pleasantness. The paper opens the avenue for exploring how eHMIs may contribute to the placemaking goals of pedestrian-centric spaces and improve the experience of people encountering AVs within these environments.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 35 sections, 7 figures, 3 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. External Human-Machine Interfaces
  4. Urban HCI
  5. Methodology
  6. Designing eHMIs for a Local Shared Space
  7. Design Considerations
  8. Ideation Workshop
  9. Design Concepts
  10. Implementing eHMI Prototypes in VR
  11. Evaluation Study
  12. Study Procedure
  13. Participants
  14. Data Collection and Analysis
  15. Qualitative Data
  16. ...and 20 more sections

Figures (7)

  • Figure 1: The local shared space (a). Designing place-based eHMIs needs to consider multiple layers of contexts: the pedestrian's activity, the environment, and the culture, dimensions provided by tomitsch2017making for designing smart urban HCI interventions (b).
  • Figure 2: Descriptions of the characteristics of our place-based eHMI designs: glow, wave, and step
  • Figure 3: An overview of the procedure of evaluation study.
  • Figure 4: A participant experiencing the prototypes through a VR headset (A); the 360-degree video-based environment in VR (B); place-based eHMI prototype implementations of the step (C), wave (D), and glow (E) concepts, and the baseline eHMI (F).
  • Figure 5: Four themes identified from participants' qualitative feedback, along with their sub-themes and the number of participants providing feedback relevant to the sub-theme.
  • ...and 2 more figures