SURVEY - Interactions Between Self-driving Vehicles and Pedestrians

university of BC logoHow will non-automated road users (pedestrians, cyclists and conventional vehicle drivers) interact with automated vehicles in real world settings? Dr. Alex Bigazzi, Dr. Jordi Honey-Rosés and their research team at the University of British Columbia (UBC) are investigating this question and request your help.

In return for completing an on line survey you will be entered in a draw for one of ten $25 gift cards.

The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete. You will be asked to evaluate pedestrian interactions with vehicles shown in a series of 8 short video clips. For comparison, half of the interactions will be with conventional vehicles at the same crosswalk locations. You will also be asked basic questions about yourself, your travel habits, and your general opinions on self-driving vehicles.

Please take a moment to complete the survey to assist this important research.

But you better have more than a few minutes spare to go through all the scenarios properly, to answer their questions!

I will be contacting Alex Bigazzi about techniques used in this survey. Very amateurish.

I've been paying close attention to these vehicles on the road and have come to the conclusion, personally, that they are more of a hazard on the road, in general, than human drivers are for these reasons. 

They drive according to an algorism and do not take into account the unpredictable nature of the human drivers around them. They will regularly speed past drivers doing below the posted speed limit then either hold that lane if cars continue to drive slower than the limit in the other lane ignoring any traffic behind them which wish to pass them.

They do not adjust their speed when another driver in the habit of maintaining the same speed as a car beside them begins to do so, thereby creating a dangerous situation for both vehicles should an occurence happen which would inadvertantly cause one or the other vehicle to suddenly veer sideways into the vehicle beside it. In situations like that the safe driving behavior would be for the vehicle finding itself being matched in speed side by side to adjust its speed in order to create a safety zone for itself. Self driving vehicles do not do this. This behavior also creates what is known as your typical traffic jam creating the potential for a multicar pile up.

Ive noticed in heavy rain weather conditions these vehicles get very confused, not knowing where its lane is and therefore erratically moving side to side along with constant erractic speed increases and decreases as it tries to figure out where its place is on the road. This behavior is noticable increased when it is intending on making either a left or right turn within the area it is driving.

And the most disturbing dangerous aspect I've noticed about these vehicles is, a highly skilled driver in a different vehicle is easily able to use its algorithmic driving behavior against it and herd it from behind into a driving behavior of their own choosing.Using such a method these vehicles can easily be tricked or forced into driving themselves off the road or into creating a hazardous unavoidable collision between itself and another 4th party vehicle.

These vehicles are an inherent danger upon the roads for these reasons. Just to name a few that I have noticed and can think of off the top of my head.