# nuReality: A VR environment for research of pedestrian and autonomous vehicle interactions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.04742 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.04742/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 12 Jan 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Virtual passengers for real car solutions: synthetic datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.06556/) (2022)
- [Incorporating System-level Safety Requirements in Perception Models via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02951/) (2024)
- [When Avatars Have Personality: Effects on Engagement and Communication in Immersive Medical Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.14132/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present nuReality, a virtual reality 'VR' environment designed to test the efficacy of vehicular behaviors to communicate intent during interactions between autonomous vehicles 'AVs' and pedestrians at urban intersections. In this project we focus on expressive behaviors as a means for pedestrians to readily recognize the underlying intent of the AV's movements. VR is an ideal tool to use to test these situations as it can be immersive and place subjects into these potentially dangerous scenarios without risk. nuReality provides a novel and immersive virtual reality environment that includes numerous visual details (road and building texturing, parked cars, swaying tree limbs) as well as auditory details (birds chirping, cars honking in the distance, people talking). In these files we present the nuReality environment, its 10 unique vehicle behavior scenarios, and the Unreal Engine and Autodesk Maya source files for each scenario. The files are publicly released as open source at www.nuReality.org, to support the academic community studying the critical AV-pedestrian interaction.