Pedestrian trust in real-world automated vehicles

Real-world behavior of pedestrians around automated vehicles is rarely studied. In a controlled setting at the Mcity test track, pedestrian interaction with automated and human-driven vehicles was examined. It was surprising to find that pedestrians trusted human-driven vehicles more than automated vehicles, even though the former drove more aggressively.

An automated vehicle (AV) and a human-driven vehicle (HDV) was driven around crossing pedestrians at Mity test track at the University of Michigan. On top is the AV and at the bottom is the HDV.