The Impact of External Human-Machine Interfaces on Pedestrian Crossing Intention
As autonomous vehicles (AVs) become more common in real-world crossing scenarios and their automation levels continue to increase, implicit driver-pedestrian communication cannot be relied on for pedestrian safety. To address this, future autonomous vehicles must incorporate tools to explicitly convey their intentions to pedestrians. In this context, external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) have been developed and studied in transportation settings.This study used video simulations to recreate typical real-world pedestrian crossing scenarios, where AVs approached either without eHMIs or with eHMIs displaying a yield signal. The responses were collected from 60 adult participants, including their intentions of crossing during the scenarios and other perceptions as pedestrians through a questionnaire. The findings indicated that respondents' willingness to cross varied across scenarios, with the presence or absence of the eHMI playing a crucial role, particularly when an AV approached a zebra crossing. In this scenario, subjective norms and attitudes were identified as key factors influencing the intention to cross the road when the AV was equipped with an eHMI. Enhancing these factors, such as fostering more positive attitudes through education, providing guides for safe road crossing and accompanying pedestrians across the road, could reduce the time pedestrians take to decide to cross, potentially improving overall traffic efficiency.
