Towards A Cooperative Driver-Vehicle Interface: Enhancing Drivers' Perception Of Cyclists Through Augmented Reality

As vulnerable road users, cyclists were often killed or injured because they were not perceived by drivers on rural roads on time. Nowadays, many sensor technology and assistance systems are used to improve traffic safety and efficiency. However, few studies focus on the interaction between drivers and cyclists, especially enhancing drivers' perception of cyclists. Following a cooperative support framework between drivers and vehicles, we designed an interface to improve drivers' perception of cyclists using Augmented Reality (AR) and then evaluated it in the driving simulator. The results show that driving behavior regarding the distance to the cyclist shows a significant change while the driver is supported by the developed AR interface. Consequently, the results implicate that the safety of vulnerable traffic participants can be increased, using a cooperation strategy between the driver and the vehicle. The behaviour while driving manually can be persuaded by the system without any distraction of the driver.