Assessment of V2X Communications For Enhanced Vulnerable Road Users Safety

Vulnerable road users (VRUs) such as pedestrians and cyclists have been the focus of renewed efforts from the car industry on life-saving and crash-reducing solutions. In this paper, we propose an evaluation study with the goal of analyzing the performance of a VRU safety service using the most common V2X ad-hoc technologies (C-V2X (mode 4), IEEE 802.11p and IEEE 802.11bd). To this end, a canonical accident scenario between a vehicle and a cyclist in an urban intersection is modelled, and implemented using a full-stack simulation environment. In this road scene, V2X technologies are then compared and analyzed under Line-of-Sight (LOS) and Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) channel conditions. Our findings illustrate the benefits of V2X technologies in limiting VRU accident risks under different channel conditions. Despite decreased performance in NLOS, V2X communications are still able to warn reliably the driver at least a few precious seconds before it is too late for the driver to take action.