Silent streets and smart signals: insights for the design of future electrical autonomous vehicle interface

The increasing number of accidents involving electric vehicles (EVs) and pedestrians underscores the need of enhancing pedestrian safety. Autonomous vehicles (AVs), which have been introduced to mitigate traffic injuries caused by human error, still miss pedestrian trust due to the absence of a human driver. To improve pedestrian perceptions, EVs and AVs must integrate communication interfaces. This study administers two questionnaires to assess pedestrians’ emotional responses when crossing in front of EVs and AVs, and their preferences of modes of interaction. Vehicles’ ability to communicate their intentions through visual signals results crucial for pedestrians. Finally, findings regarding signals effectiveness when interacting with EVs and AVs allow for guidelines to emerge for the design of EAVs interfaces, offering valuable insights for the development of such vehicles.