The EU funded SHOW project has carried out tests to investigate how passengers experience Automated Vehicles in urban environments. Last week, on Thursday 11 November 2021, SHOW partner TNO (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Toegepast Natuurwetenschappelijk Onderzoek) conducted tests to analyse passenger experience of Automated Vehicles (AV) in urban environments, more specifically while approaching signalised intersections.
The investigation carried out at the Aldenhoven test track in Germany is part of the demonstrations planned for the Brainport trial site in The Netherlands, one of the demo sites of the project.
The main goal of this study is to understand how people experience automated vehicles approaching an intersection. User acceptance of AVs is key for the future of automated mobility. The common understanding is that the driving style of an AV might have to be different from that of a human driver, to be acceptable, trustworthy and comfortable for the passenger.
To this end, two use cases were tested with the passengers: the first use case involves a traffic light switching phases; the second use case focuses on a red light violation by a pedestrian. In both cases, the vehicle approaches a signalized intersection and responds automatically to the information it receives from a Road Side Unit (RSU) without the intervention of the driver.
