# Comparing State-of-the-Art and Emerging Augmented Reality Interfaces for Autonomous Vehicle-to-Pedestrian Communication

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2102.02783 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02783/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Feb 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [AirSim: High-Fidelity Visual and Physical Simulation for Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.05065/) (2017)
- [Autonomous Vehicles that Interact with Pedestrians: A Survey of Theory and Practice](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.11773/) (2018)
- [Building Trust in Autonomous Vehicles: Role of Virtual Reality Driving Simulators in HMI Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.13371/) (2020)
- [Intent Communication between Autonomous Vehicles and Pedestrians](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.07123/) (2017)
- [An Evaluation Testbed for Locomotion in Virtual Reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.10178/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [ARCAS: An Augmented Reality Collision Avoidance System with SLAM-Based Tracking for Enhancing VRU Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05299/) (2025)
- [XR-DT: Extended Reality-Enhanced Digital Twin for Safe Motion Planning via Human-Aware Model Predictive Path Integral Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05270/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Providing pedestrians and other vulnerable road users with a clear indication about a fully autonomous vehicle status and intentions is crucial to make them coexist. In the last few years, a variety of external interfaces have been proposed, leveraging different paradigms and technologies including vehicle-mounted devices (like LED panels), short-range on-road projections, and road infrastructure interfaces (e.g., special asphalts with embedded displays). These designs were experimented in different settings, using mockups, specially prepared vehicles, or virtual environments, with heterogeneous evaluation metrics. Promising interfaces based on Augmented Reality (AR) have been proposed too, but their usability and effectiveness have not been tested yet. This paper aims to complement such body of literature by presenting a comparison of state-of-the-art interfaces and new designs under common conditions. To this aim, an immersive Virtual Reality-based simulation was developed, recreating a well-known scenario represented by pedestrians crossing in urban environments under non-regulated conditions. A user study was then performed to investigate the various dimensions of vehicle-to-pedestrian interaction leveraging objective and subjective metrics. Even though no interface clearly stood out over all the considered dimensions, one of the AR designs achieved state-of-the-art results in terms of safety and trust, at the cost of higher cognitive effort and lower intuitiveness compared to LED panels showing anthropomorphic features. Together with rankings on the various dimensions, indications about advantages and drawbacks of the various alternatives that emerged from this study could provide important information for next developments in the field.