Evaluation of automated vehicles encountering pedestrians at unsignalized crossings

Interactions between vehicles and pedestrians have always been a major problem in traffic safety. Experienced human drivers are able to analyze the environment and choose driving strategies that will help them avoid crashes. What is not yet clear, however, is how automated vehicles will interact with pedestrians. This paper proposes a new method for evaluating the safety and feasibility of the driving strategy of automated vehicles when encountering unsignalized crossings. MobilEye® sensors installed on buses in Ann Arbor, Michigan, collected data on 2,973 valid crossing events. A stochastic interaction model was then created using a multivariate Gaussian mixture model. This model allowed us to simulate the movements of pedestrians reacting to an oncoming vehicle when approaching unsignalized crossings, and to evaluate the passing strategies of automated vehicles. A simulation was then conducted to demonstrate the evaluation procedure.