A Tool, not a Toy: Using Virtual Reality to Evaluate the Communication Between Autonomous Vehicles and Pedestrians

Abstract

Although the main market for Virtual Reality (VR) is currently the gaming industry, advantages of using virtual environments in research and development have been already demonstrated e.g. for car industry or urban planning. Especially when no prototype is feasible or available, VR constitutes an advantageous alternative since it allows tests in laboratory conditions with high flexibility and ensured safety for test participants. In the presented study, it is investigated how VR can be used as a tool for Usability Tests to evaluate Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) for communication between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians. Singapore with its regulations and requirements has been selected as reference. Beyond the findings that explicit HMI concepts improve the communication between autonomous vehicles and pedestrians, VR was validated as suitable tool to conduct Usability Tests. Further studies plan to integrate additional case studies as well as improved immersion of test participants within the virtual environment.