Safety and Perceived Safety of Highly Automated Vehicles in Mixed Traffic
As part of the iamo pilot project in the Furttal region, ZHAW investigates the technical safety, perceived safety, and interactions of highly automated vehicles in real-world mixed traffic. The research aims to develop evidence-based recommendations for safe and socially accepted automated mobility.
Description
The integration of highly automated vehicles into public road traffic introduces new challenges regarding technical safety and the interaction between automated systems and humans. As part of the scientific research accompanying the iamo pilot project in the Furttal region, ZHAW investigates these challenges using a sociotechnical research approach.
The research focuses on four key areas: the analysis of safety-critical traffic situations, passengers' perceived safety, interactions with other road users, and system behaviour under exceptional and failure conditions. Technical vehicle and operational data are combined with empirical assessments of subjective safety perceptions and road user behaviour.
The research aims to systematically identify relationships between objective safety, subjective perception, and human behaviour. Based on these findings, evidence-based recommendations for driving behaviour, communication, operations, and preventive measures will be developed to support the safe integration of automated mobility into public road traffic.
Key data
Projectlead
Project team
Project partners
Stiftung für Prävention der AXA
Project status
ongoing, started 09/2026
Institute/Centre
Institute of Applied Mathematics and Physics (IAMP); Institute of Sustainable Development (INE)
Funding partner
Stiftung für Prävention der AXA
Further documents and links
School of Engineering
Technikumstrasse 9
8400 Winterthur