Autonomous shuttle buses provide a promising solution for the last-mile problem in various contexts. The removal of the human driver facilitates round-the-clock operations as well as transportation in locations that might otherwise be unfeasible for buses operated by a human driver. Trials have been conducted on these buses, and several companies aim to equip their vehicles with full self-driving capabilities. However, removing the human driver introduces several challenges, particularly in handling emergency situations. The absence of the driver, therefore, calls for increased passenger situational awareness, i.e., understanding of the environmental and contextual factors impacting the operations of the bus the passenger is on. It remains unclear to what extent bus manufacturers have considered these issues or integrated them into the design. This research seeks to shed light on the matter by studying the topic both from the industry’s and users’ perspectives.
Chandrasekaran, L., Crookes, A. and Lansdown, T. C. 2019. Driver situation awareness – investigating the effect of passenger experience. Transp. Res. F: Traffic Psychol. Behav., 61, 152–162.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2017.12.007
Chang, C.-C., Grier, R. A., Maynard, J., Shutko, J., Blommer, M., Swaminathan, R. et al. 2019. Using a situational awareness display to improve rider trust and comfort with an AV taxi. Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Ann. Meeting, 63(1), 2083–2087.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181319631428
Endsley, M. R. 1988. Situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT). In Proceedings of the IEEE 1988 National Aerospace and Electronics Conference, Dayton, OH, USA, 23–27 May 1988. IEEE, 3, 789–795.
Endsley, M. R. 2017. Autonomous driving systems: a preliminary naturalistic study of the Tesla model S. J. Cogn. Eng. Decis. Mak., 11(3), 225–238.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1555343417695197
Endsley, M. R. 2019. Situation awareness in future autonomous vehicles: beware of the unexpected. In Proceedings of the 20th Congress of the International Ergonomics Association (IEA 2018) (Bagnara, S., Tartaglia, R., Albolino, S., Alexander, T. and Fujita, Y., eds). Springer, Cham, 824, 303–309.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96071-5_32
Herrenkind, B., Brendel, A. B., Nastjuk, I., Greve, M. and Kolbe, L. M. 2019. Investigating end-user acceptance of autonomous electric buses to accelerate diffusion. Transp. Res. D: Transp. Environ., 74, 255–276.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2019.08.003
Kalda, K., Sell, R. and Kivimäe, M. 2024. Enhancing mobility as a service with autonomous last-mile shuttles and data exchange layer for public transport. AIP Conf. Proc., 2989(1), 020006.
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0189880
Launonen, P., Salonen, A. O. and Liimatainen, H. 2021. Icy roads and urban environments. Passenger experiences in autonomous vehicles in Finland. Transp. Res. F: Traffic Psychol. Behav., 80, 34–48.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2021.03.015
Lu, Y., Yi, B., Song, X., Zhao, S., Wang, J., and Cao, H. 2022. Can we adapt to highly automated vehicles as passengers? The mediating effect of trust and situational awareness on role adaption moderated by automated driving style. Transp. Res. F: Traffic Psychol. Behav., 90, 269–286.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2022.08.011
Nordhoff, S., Lee, J. D., Calvert, S. C., Berge, S., Hagenzieker, M. and Happee, R. 2023. (Mis-)use of standard autopilot and full self-driving (FSD) Beta: results from interviews with users of Tesla’s FSD Beta. Front. Psychol., 14, 1101520.
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1101520
Sell, R., Soe, R.-M., Wang, R. and Rassõlkin, A. 2021. Autonomous vehicle shuttle in smart city testbed. In Intelligent System Solutions for Auto Mobility and Beyond. AMAA 2020. Lecture Notes in Mobility (Zachäus, C. and Meyer, G., eds). Springer, Cham, 143–157.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65871-7_11
Sell, R., Malayjerdi, M., Pikner, H., Razdan, R., Malayjerdi, E. and Bellone, M. 2024. Open-source level 4 autonomous shuttle for last-mile mobility. In 2024 IEEE 29th International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA), Padova, Italy, 10–13 September 2024. IEEE, 1–6.
https://doi.org/10.1109/ETFA61755.2024.10710975
Udal, A., Sell, R., Kalda, K. and Antov, D. 2024. A predictive compact model of effective travel time considering the implementation of first-mile autonomous mini-buses in smart suburbs. Smart Cities, 7(6), 3914–3935.
https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities7060151
Wang, J., Zhang, L., Huang, Y. and Zhao, J. 2020. Safety of autonomous vehicles. J. Adv. Transp., 2020, 1–13.
https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8867757
