Negotiation between Vehicles and Pedestrians for the Right of Way at Intersections

Abstract

The higher social attention and negotiation among road users while crossing the road is as much a challenge for self-driving cars as it is for pedestrians. Self-driving cars in their current state are not able to understand cues from other road users and are rather reactive to pedestrian behavior, which may result overall in a slower traffic flow. In this paper, a vehicle-pedestrian negotiation model is proposed describing the processing and exchange of negotiation cues from both parties in order to speed up the traffic flow. The motion strategy for the vehicle approaching the pedestrian is formulated in order to negotiate its best chance to pass first, a process that closely mimics the comm..