Are the External Human-Machine Interfaces (eHMI) Accessible for People with Disabilities? A Systematic Review

In the past few years, much research has been done to develop Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) at a level where AVs can replace manual driving vehicles. Though AVs can potentially improve the quality of safe transportation by reducing accidents and traffic jams, many issues that will hinder AVs’ full-scale manufacture still need to be solved, including the communication between AVs and pedestrians. Different external human-machine interfaces (eHMI) are developed and tested to address this issue. However, none of the available eHMIs focus on an inclusive design for People with Disabilities (PD). In the article, we reviewed 29 articles published in three different databases and evaluated 13 different types of eHMI from an accessibility perspective. Our findings show that no existing eHMI can address communication issues for all PD.