The impending deployment of automated vehicles (AVs) represents a major shift in the traditional approach to ground transportation; its effects will inevitably be felt by parties directly involved with the vehicle manufacturing and use (e.g., automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), public transportation systems, heavy goods transportation providers) and those that play roles in the mobility ecosystem (e.g., aftermarket and maintenance industries, infrastructure and planning organizations, automotive insurance providers, marketers, telecommunication companies).


The focus of this SAE EDGE Research Report is to address a topic overlooked by many who choose to view automated driving systems and AVs from a "10,000-foot perspective: " the topic of how AVs will communicate with other road users such as conventional (human-driven) vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians while in operation. This unsettled issue requires assessing the spectrum of existing modes of communication - both implicit and explicit, both biological and technological - employed by road users today.


NOTE: SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are intended to identify and illuminate key issues in emerging, but still unsettled, technologies of interest to the mobility industry. The goal of SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports is to stimulate discussion and work in the hope of promoting and speeding resolution of identified issues. SAE EDGE(TM) Research Reports are not intended to resolve the challenges they identify or close any topic to further scrutiny.