Safe Cooperation of Autonomous Vehicles in Mixed Traffic

Autonomous vehicles (such as cars and vessels) will be widespread in our daily lives, aiming at reducing pollution while improving traffic efficiency and safety. According to recent statistics1, however, there are urgent societal concerns about the capabilities of autonomous vehicles to (i) interact safely with non-autonomous vehicles (e.g., operated by humans) in mixed traffic conditions, and (ii) handle unexpected events, such as faults, without causing disruptions or jeopardizing human safety. While the industry is investing billions in developing autonomous vehicles, the manufacturer investments in algorithms for vehicle cooperation are limited. Our main research question is how to handle unknown human behavior and faults in mixed traffic to ensure the safe cooperation of autonomous vehicles in e.g. roads, inland waterways, ports.