8The main aim of this study was to use an adapted version of the Unified Theory of Acceptance

No abstract

Automated shuttles are now in a prototyping phase in several research projects. However, there is still a paucity of knowledge on the acceptance of these shuttles. This paper presents the results of a questionnaire study among individuals (n = 384) who physically experienced an automated shuttle on an office campus in Berlin-Schöneberg. The findings indicate that the respondents were positive towards automated shuttles and could envision their use as feeders to public transport systems, in both urban and rural areas. The respondents were less satisfied with the effectiveness of the shuttle compared to their existing form of travel, the speed of the shuttle, and the space for luggage. A principal component analysis resulted in the retention of three components: (1) intention to use, (2) shuttle and service characteristics, and (3) shuttle effectiveness compared to existing transport. Older respondents expressed a higher intention to use, but found the shuttle less effective than their existing travel. We argue that automated shuttles are a valued concept, but speed and efficiency have to improve, in order for automated shuttles to become viable on a wide scale. Future research should use more objective measures and establish longterm effects in larger, more representative samples.

Automated vehicles (AV) are expected to be integrated into mixed traffic environments in the near future. As human road users have established elaborated interaction strategies to coordinate their actions among each other, one challenge that Human Factors experts and vehicle designers are facing today is how to design AVs in a way that they can safely and intuitively interact with other traffic participants. This paper presents design considerations that are intended to support AV designers in reducing the complexity of the design space. The design considerations are based on a literature review of common human-human interaction strategies. Four categories of information are derived for the design considerations: 1) information about vehicle driving mode; 2) information about AVs' manoeuvres; 3) information about AVs' perceptions of the environment; and 4) information about AVs' cooperation capabilities. In this paper, we apply the four categories to analyse existing research studies of traffic participants' needs during interactions with AVs, and results of the CityMobil2 project. From the CityMobil2 project we present central results from face-to-face interviews, an onsite-survey and two focus groups. To further support the AV designers we describe and rate different design options to present the information of the four categories, including the design of the infrastructure, the vehicle shape, the vehicle manoeuvres and the external Human-Machine Interface (HMI) of the AV.

As the desire for deploying automated ("driverless") vehicles increases, there is a need to understand how they might communicate with other road users in a mixed traffic, urban, setting. In the absence of an active and responsible human controller in the driving seat, who might currently communicate with other road users in uncertain/conflicting situations, in the future, understanding a driverless car's behaviour and intentions will need to be relayed via easily comprehensible, intuitive and universally intelligible means, perhaps presented externally via new vehicle interfaces. This paper reports on the results of a questionnaire-based study, delivered to 664 participants, recruited during live demonstrations of an Automated Road Transport Systems (ARTS; SAE Level 4), in three European cities. The questionnaire sought the views of pedestrians and cyclists, focussing on whether respondents felt safe interacting with ARTS in shared space, and also what externally presented travel behaviour information from the ARTS was important to them. Results showed that most pedestrians felt safer when the ARTS were travelling in designated lanes, rather than in shared space, and the majority believed they had priority over the ARTS, in the absence of such infrastructure. Regardless of lane demarcations, all respondents highlighted the importance of receiving some communication information about the behaviour of the ARTS, with acknowledgement of their detection by the vehicle being the most important message. There were no clear patterns across the respondents, regarding preference of modality for these external messages, with cultural and infrastructural differences thought to govern responses. Generally, however, conventional signals (lights and beeps) were preferred to text-based messages and spoken words. The results suggest that until these driverless vehicles are able to provide universally comprehensible externally presented information or messages during interaction with other road users, they are likely to contribute to confusing and conflicting interactions between these actors, especially in a shared space setting, which may, therefore, reduce efficient traffic flow.