A New Methodology for Analysing Interactions between an Autonomous Vehicle and other Users

Abstract

The increasingly present automation of vehicles generates great concern both in the industrial and public sectors. Evidently, the autonomy of vehicles is accompanied by a large number of scientific questions: what are the real benefits of automating transport services? what are the new expected situations due to the presence of an autonomous vehicle? etc. In terms of road safety, great interest has been aroused in the interactions between autonomous vehicles and the rest of the road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, etc.). Especially, there is interest in the way current road users act/react to the inclusion of this new element (the autonomous vehicle) in the road ecosystem. The definition and classification of these interactions undoubtedly influence the Operational Design Domain (ODD) as well as the defined behaviour that the autonomous vehicle must perform in any situation. In this article, the description of the methodology carried out for the identification, registration and subsequent analysis of these situations of interest is presented, which is composed of five parts: 1) Installation of fixed cameras and GPS system used for monitoring interactions, 2) detection of the autonomous vehicle (AV) and other road users, 3) estimation of AV and other users trajectories, 4) estimation of the distances between the AV and other users, and 5) interpretation of the data collected and its use to improve road safety.