Uncovering Pedestrian Stress and Crossing Strategies via Mixed-Reality Encounters with Autonomous Vehicles

Pedestrian crossing when encountering autonomous vehicles (AVs) is a complex interplay between vehicle kinematics, external human-machine interface (eHMI) cues, and pedestrians’ physiological states. However, studies have not yet systematically integrated continuous physiological stress with observed crossing behaviour in AV settings, nor clarified how stressful behaviour differs across pedestrian groups. In this study, we investigate how AV traffic scenarios (e.g., vehicle speed, temporal gaps, yielding behaviours, urgency prompts, and eHMI) shape physiological arousal and crossing decisions, explicating stress-mediated mechanisms and supporting safer eHMI and road design. A head-mounted mixed reality (MR) experiment combined with Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) measurements was developed to project life-size virtual AVs into real streetscapes and to quantify sympathetic arousals.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5954915