Evaluating pedestrian interaction preferences with a game theoretic autonomous vehicle in virtual reality

Localisation and navigation of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in static environments are now solved problems, but how to control their interactions with other road users in mixed traffic environments, especially with pedestrians, remains an open question. Recent work has begun to apply game theory to model and control AV-pedestrian interactions as they compete for space on the road whilst trying to avoid collisions. But this game theory model has been developed only in unrealistic lab environments. To improve their realism, this study empirically examines pedestrian behaviour during road crossing in the presence of approaching autonomous vehicles in more realistic virtual reality (VR) environments. The autonomous vehicles are controlled using game theory, and this study seeks to find the best parameters for these controls to produce comfortable interactions for the pedestrians. In a first experiment, participants’ trajectories reveal a more cautious crossing behaviour in VR than in previous laboratory experiments. In two further experiments, a gradient descent approach is used to investigate participants’ preference for AV driving style. The results show that the majority of participants were not expecting the AV to stop in some scenarios, and there was no change in their crossing behaviour in two environments and with different car models suggestive of car and last-mile style vehicles. These results provide some initial estimates for game theoretic parameters needed by future AVs in their pedestrian interactions and more generally show how such parameters can be inferred from virtual reality experiments.     

Different level automation technology acceptance: Older adult driver opinion

The increase in the number of older adult drivers in developed countries has raised safety concerns due to the decline in their sensory, motor, perceptual, and cognitive abilities which can limit their driving capabilities. Their driving safety could be enhanced by the use of modern Automated Driver Assistance Systems (ADASs) and might totally resolved by full driving automation. However, the acceptance of these technologies by older adult drivers is not yet well understood. Thus, this study investigated older adult drivers’ intention to use six ADASs and full driving automation through two questionnaires with 115 and 132 participants respectively in Rhode Island, USA. A four-dimensional model referred to as the USEA model was used for exploring older adult drivers’ technology acceptance. The USEA model included perceived usefulness, perceived safety, perceived ease of use, and perceived anxiety. Path Analysis was applied to evaluate the proposed model. The results of this study identified the important factors in older adult drivers’ intention to use ADASs and full driving automation, which could assist stakeholders in improving technologies for use by older drivers.     

Using the teaching interaction procedure to train interventionists to implement the Cool versus Not CoolTM procedure

The teaching interaction procedure is a behavior analytic procedure that has been used to target the development of social skills. The teaching interaction procedure consists of labeling the target skill, providing a meaningful rationale, describing the steps of the target skill, modeling the skill, role‐play, and providing feedback throughout the interaction. Although the teaching interaction procedure has been used to teach a variety of social skills for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it has only been used to train staff in two studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of the teaching interaction procedure to teach three interventionists to implement the Cool versus Not Cool? procedure to target the development of social skills for children diagnosed with ASD. The results of a multiple baseline design demonstrated that the teaching interaction procedure was effective for all three interventionists. Results of the child participants' skill acquisition are also provided.     

Penser les temporalités à l’accueil des urgences psychiatriques : paroles d’intervenants de la crise

ObjectiveTo explore the relation to times in crisis units and psychiatric emergencies by crisis stakeholders.MethodIt is in a qualitative logic that the collection and analysis of data are discussed. 9 crisis stakeholders participated in the study. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using the Grounded Theory.ResultsThe Grounded Theory shows significant phenomena resulting the experience of temporality in psychiatric emergencies: plural human temporalities (1), impacts of multiple temporalities (2), reorganizing temporalities of the relationship (3), and appropriation of temporality (4). The manner of appropriating time depends essentially on the emotional control and the reflexivity of the therapeutic actions.ConclusionCrisis stakeholders are in temporality of immediacy, speed and subjective urgency and suggest us thinking in less quickly and better. Team exchanges are so many suspended moments that contribute to the resumption of a thought process and avoid acting too quickly. Participants would like the relational component to be privileged with patients.     

Driver conflict response during supervised automation: Do hands on wheel matter?

Securing appropriate driver responses to conflicts is essential in automation that is not perfect (because the driver is needed as a fall-back for system limitations and failures). However, this is recognized as a major challenge in the human factors literature. Moreover, in-depth knowledge is lacking regarding mechanisms affecting the driver response process. The first aim of this study was to investigate how driver conflict response while using highly reliable (but not perfect) supervised automation differ for drivers that (a) crash or avoid a conflict object and (b) report high trust or low trust in automation to avoid the conflict object. The second aim was to understand the influence on the driver conflict response of two specific factors: a hands-on-wheel requirement (with vs. without), and the conflict object type (garbage bag vs. stationary vehicle). Seventy-six participants drove with highly reliable but supervised automation for 30 min on a test track. Thereafter they needed to avoid a static object that was revealed by a lead-vehicle cut-out. The driver conflict response was assessed through the response process: timepoints for driver surprise reaction, hands-on-wheel, driver steering, and driver braking. Crashers generally responded later in all actions of the response process compared to non-crashers. In fact, some crashers collided with the conflict object without even putting their hands on the wheel. Driver conflict response was independent of the hands-on-wheel requirement. High-trust drivers generally responded later than the low-trust drivers or not at all, and only high trust drivers crashed. The larger stationary vehicle triggered an earlier surprise reaction compared to the garbage bag, while hands-on-wheel and steering response were similar for the two conflict object types. To conclude, crashing is associated with a delay in all actions of the response process. In addition, driver conflict response does not change with a hands-on-wheel requirement but changes with trust-level and conflict object type. Simply holding the hands on the wheel is not sufficient to prevent collisions or elicit earlier responses. High trust in automation is associated with late response and crashing, whereas low trust is associated with appropriate driver response. A larger conflict object trigger earlier surprise reactions.     

Safety of micro-mobility: Riders’ psychological factors and risky behaviors of cargo TTWs in China

Cargo two- or three-wheeled vehicles (TTWs), as a new form of micro-mobility, have become a popular mode of urban cargo transportation in China. Cargo TTW riders’ psychological factors and risky behaviors lead to a number of accidents. A questionnaire is designed by comprehensively considering these factors and behaviors of cargo TTW riders that includes eleven risk factors to quantitatively analyze the risky behaviors based on structural equation modeling (SEM). One thousand three hundred nineteen participants reported using cargo TTWs on a questionnaire distributed across the country. The characteristics of riding behavior data are analyzed to verify the three-layer risk theoretical framework of “Psychological factors (Personality traits/specific factors) - Psychological acceptability of risks (confidence/perception/attitude) - Risky behaviors”. The results show that anger has a strong direct effect on riding violations, while normlessness and altruism have a direct effect on riding errors. Workload has a weak but direct effect on risky behaviors, and riding feedback has a weak and mixed effect. In addition, high-risk groups are identified by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with rider population attributes. These quantitative analyses can help guide safety countermeasures to mitigate accidents involving cargo TTWs.     

Key factors associated with Australian parents’ willingness to use an automated vehicle to transport their unaccompanied children

This study aimed to identify the key factors associated with Australian parents' willingness to use an automated vehicle to transport their unaccompanied child(ren). Seven hundred and seventy-five participants completed the online survey (M = 40.7 years, SD = 8.9 years, Range = 18.0–65.0 years; Female: 56.4%). Most participants reported that they would 'never' use an automated vehicle to transport their unaccompanied child(ren) (43.5%). The results of a logistic regression model showed that participants' age, gender, level of education, propensity for technology adoption, aberrant driving behaviours, awareness of advanced driver assistance safety (ADAS) technologies, perceived knowledge regarding automated vehicles, as well their requirements for assurance-related vehicle features were significantly associated with their willingness to use an automated vehicle to transport their unaccompanied child(ren), χ2(12) = 137.41, p < 0.001). Overall, the findings suggest that Australian parents are mostly unwilling to use an automated vehicle to transport their unaccompanied child(ren) unless various reassurance features and technologies (i.e., microphones, camera, ability to summon assistance if the vehicle breaks down) are embedded in the vehicle. Therefore, automated vehicle manufacturers are encouraged to consider these requirements when prototyping their designs so that all user groups, including child occupants, can benefit from the impending arrival of automated technologies.     

Urgent and non-urgent takeovers during conditional automated driving on public roads: The impact of different training programmes

Supplying training to drivers that teaches them about automated driving and requests to intervene may help them to build and maintain a mental representation of how automation works and thereby improve takeover performance. We aimed to investigate the effect of different types of training programmes about the functioning of automated driving on drivers’ takeover performance during real driving. Fifty-two participants were split into three groups for training sessions: paper (short notice), video (3-minute tutorial) and practice (short drive). After the training, participants experienced automated driving and both urgent and non-urgent requests to intervene in a Wizard-of-Oz vehicle on public roads. Participants’ takeover time, visual behaviour, mental workload, and flow levels during the requests to intervene were assessed. Our results indicated that in urgent circumstances, participants’ takeover response times were faster in the practice training condition compared to the other training conditions. Nevertheless, the practice training session did not present any other positive effect on drivers’ visual behaviour. This could indicate that prior training, particularly when reinforcing drivers' motor skills, improved their takeover response time at the latest motor stages rather than in the early sensory states. In addition, the analysis of in-vehicle videos revealed that participants’ attention was captured in the first place by the in-vehicle human-machine interface during the urgent request to intervene. This highlights the importance for designers to display information on the HMI in an appropriate way to optimise drivers’ situation awareness in critical situations.     

Reliability of variable message signs information: A field experiment study in Chongqing

A variable message sign (VMS), which is a key component of intelligent transportation systems, has been frequently used in the management of urban roads and motorways to provide drivers with real-time traffic condition information about a road section or area. Nevertheless, there is a lack of unified regulations for VMS design, which makes it difficult to accurately determine the understandability and legibility of VMS information. In practice, inappropriate designs of VMSs are common, such as overload of VMS information and excessive number of phases, particularly on the urban roads of China. Building on our earlier findings obtained by surveys, in this study, field tests were conducted to assess the reliability of VMS information in terms of the visual perception characteristics of drivers. For a full visual perception, the information displayed on a VMS must be reliable, i.e., it should be easy for drivers to detect, obtain, and understand the messages they require. Two basic theories—information theory and visual perception theory—were introduced to build a quantification model of VMS information, select evaluation indices, and design the experimental process. A total of 24 drivers participated in the field experiments and questionnaires. Five indices—information obtainment rate, periodic validity, driver subjective scoring and the corresponding UI (represents information intelligibility), and CE (represents information legibility)—were analyzed to evaluate their relationships to VMS information reliability. The results confirmed that the amount of information, and the scrolling period considering redundant distance, significantly affect the reliability of VMSs information. For static VMSs, the information obtainment rate and the subjective scoring decrease with increasing amount of information. The recollection accuracy of the drivers significantly declines when the amount of information shown increases to 90 bits, corresponding to an information obtainment rate of less than 0.8 and UI equal to 0. For dynamic VMSs, the information reliability deteriorates as the scrolling period shortens and the number of phases increases. Unreasonable reliability is found when the periodic validity is less than 0.9, i.e., the actual scrolling period is more than 10% less than the calculated one, corresponding to CE equal to 0. The reliability of information was evaluated by combining the subjective scoring of the drivers and a data-based statistical analysis and considering driving safety. Accordingly, it was recommended that 90 bit is the maximum amount of information to be shown on a VMS and that the preferred scrolling period of each phase of a dynamic VMS is 5 s. The results of this study support the objective of providing reliable information to drivers by addressing the problems related to the amount of information and presentation time for VMSs. These findings provide a basis for determining the thresholds for VMS information to promote practical and user-friendly designs of VMSs on urban roads.     

A two-part evaluation approach for measuring the usability and user experience of an Augmented Reality-based assistance system to support the temporal coordination of spatially dispersed teams

One key predictor of team performance and productivity is the teams’ ability to coordinate its subtasks as precisely as possible over time. Thereby, the quality of the temporal coordination in teams is highly dependent on several cognitive team skills, like for instance the ability to build a precise and stable mental model of the situation (shared situation awareness) and of the team task process (task state awareness/ TSA). To support these cognitive skills in teams, various methods and trainings already exist. However, considering teams that work de-located, the prerequisites and therefore the requirements for team supportive methods change. This work presents the results of an empirical usability and user experience (UX) study of an interface for an Augmented Reality-based assistance system for spatially dispersed teams, called Ambient Awareness Tool (AAT). The AAT interface consists of graphical information about the teamwork process and aims at enhancing the TSA of the team, thereby supporting its temporal coordination. Within the framework of a participatory design process we conducted a two-part expert-user-study, comprising a laboratory experiment for the evaluation of the interface usability and a follow-up online survey to additionally investigate the UX. By means of the usability scores we first inferred three interface configuration clusters. A subsequent UX evaluation then allowed us to designate the configuration cluster with the highest usability and UX scores. As a result, we defined one interface configuration that will be investigated concerning its actual impact on the temporal coordination of spatially dispersed teams in a further study.