As automated road vehicles begin their deployment into public traffic, they will need to interact with human driven vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. This requires some form of communication between those automated vehicles (AVs) and other road users. Some of these communication modes (e.g., auditory, motion) were previously addressed in “Unsettled Issues Regarding Communication of Automated Vehicles with Other Road Users.” Unsettled Issues Regarding Visual Communication Between Automated Vehicles and Other Road Users focuses on visual communication and its balance of reach, clarity, and intuitiveness, and discusses how different visual modes (e.g., simple lights, rich text) can be used between AVs and other road users. A particular emphasis is put on standardization to highlight how uniformity and mass adoption increase communication efficacy. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2021016

The focus of this SAE EDGE™ Research Report is to address a topic overlooked by many who choose to view automated driving systems and AVs from a “10,000-foot” perspective: how automated vehicles (AVs) will actually communicate with other road users. Conventional (human-driven) vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians already have a functioning system of understating each other while on the move. Adding automated vehicles to the mix requires assessing the spectrum of existing modes of communication – both implicit and explicit, biological and technological, and how they will interact with each other in the real world. The impending deployment of AVs represents a major shift in the traditional approach to ground transportation; its effects will inevitably be felt by parties directly involved with the vehicle manufacturing and use and those that play roles in the mobility ecosystem (e.g., aftermarket and maintenance industries, infrastructure and planning organizations, automotive insurance providers, marketers, telecommunication companies). Unsettled Issues Regarding Communication of Automated Vehicles with Other Road Users brings together the multiple scenarios we are likely to see in a future not too far away and how they are likely to play out in practical ways. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2020023

The impending deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) represents a major shift in the traditional approach to ground transportation; its effects will inevitably be felt by parties directly involved with the vehicle manufacturing and use (e.g., automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), public transportation systems, heavy goods transportation providers) and those that play roles in the mobility ecosystem (e.g., aftermarket and maintenance industries, infrastructure and planning organizations, automotive insurance providers, marketers, telecommunication companies). The focus of this SAE EDGE Research Report is to address a topic overlooked by many who choose to view automated driving systems and AVs from a "10,000-foot perspective: " the topic of how AVs will communicate with other road users such as conventional (human-driven) vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians while in operation. This unsettled issue requires assessing the spectrum of existing modes of communication - both implicit and explicit, both biological and technological - employed by road users today. NOTE: SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports is to stimulate discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of identified issues. SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are not intended to resolve the challenges they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny.

As automated road vehicles begin their deployment into public traffic, they will need to interact with human driven vehicles, pedestrians, bicyclists, etc. This requires some form of communication between those automated vehicles (AVs) and other road users. Some of these communication modes (e.g., auditory, motion) were previously addressed in 0́−Unsettled Issues Regarding Communication of Automated Vehicles with Other Road Users.0́+ Unsettled Issues Regarding Visual Communication Between Automated Vehicles and Other Road Users focuses on visual communication and its balance of reach, clarity, and intuitiveness, and discusses how different visual modes (e.g., simple lights, rich text) can be used between AVs and other road users. A particular emphasis is put on standardization to highlight how uniformity and mass adoption increase communication efficacy.

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 to, and interact with other traffic participants, such as vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, and emerging mobility forms like eBikes or scooters), but potentially also 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. Although we still welcome such contributions, 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 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.

Across the span of the SAE International-defined Levels of Driving Automation, human drivers occupy a diverse range of responsibilities and authority on the vehicle movement and the monitoring of the outside environment. From both a technological and a regulatory perspective, there is a gap that divides lower levels of automation (L1 through L3) and higher levels of automation (L4 and L5). For those vehicles that require the cooperation between a human driver and the autonomous technology, it is important to ascertain the safety consequences of such a design choice. It is also important to understand what the transition between automated driving and manual driving entails for the human driver, as well as for the surrounding traffic. This SAE EDGE™ Research Report investigates unsettled issues concerning what is commonly referred to as “semi-automation,” including an overview of the role of human drivers, the quantification of the “transition-to-manual” problem, the role played by L3 toward full automation, and regulatory and moral considerations surrounding the deployment of these vehicles. NOTE: SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE™ Research Reports is to stimulate discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of identified issues. SAE EDGE™ Research Reports are not intended to resolve the issues they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2020001

On-road vehicles equipped with driving automation features—where a human might not be needed for operation on-board—are entering the mainstream public space. However, questions like “How safe is safe enough?” and “What to do if the system fails?” persist. This is where remote operation comes in, which is an additional layer to the automated driving system where a human remotely assists the so-called “driverless” vehicle in certain situations. Such remote-operation solutions introduce additional challenges and potential risks as the entire vehicle-network-human now needs to work together safely, effectively, and practically. Unsettled Issues in Remote Operation for On-road Driving Automation highlights technical questions (e.g., network latency, bandwidth, cyber security) and human aspects (e.g., workload, attentiveness, situational awareness) of remote operation and introduces evolving solutions. The report also discusses standards development and regulations—both of which are needed to provide frameworks for the deployment of driving automation with remote operation. Click here to access the full SAE EDGETM Research Report portfolio. https://doi.org/10.4271/EPR2021028