Does Another Pedestrian Matter? A Virtual Reality Study on the Interaction Between Multiple Pedestrians and Autonomous Vehicles in Shared Space

This study utilized Virtual Reality (VR) experiments to investigate pedestrian-autonomous vehicle interaction in shared spaces. In the VR experiment, pedestrians attempt to cross the road under different conditions, including the presence of another pedestrian, different external Human-Machine-Interfaces, AV driving styles, and road conditions. We employed an innovative VR setup that enabled two pedestrians to interact in real time with physical movements within an immersive VR environment. Overall, we found that the presence of multiple pedestrians significantly influenced pedestrian movement dynamics during road crossing. Additionally, the relative standing position had a significant impact on the distant pedestrians regarding time before crossing and vehicle-gazing behavior. While previous studies predominantly focused on pedestrian-AV interaction with a single pedestrian, this study takes an important step forward in terms of theory, methods, and relevance by considering interactions between multiple pedestrians and AVs. The findings establish a basis for further exploration of pedestrian-AV interaction in shared space.