CycleARcade: Glasgow’s AR Innovation Paves the Way for Safer Cyclist and Autonomous Vehicle Interaction in Diverse Global Settings

CycleARcade: Glasgow’s AR Innovation Paves the Way for Safer Cyclist and Autonomous Vehicle Interaction in Diverse Global Settings

(IN BRIEF) Researchers at the University of Glasgow have developed CycleARcade, an augmented reality tool that rapidly prototypes immersive experiences for cyclists. By enabling cyclists to ride in open environments while interacting with virtual autonomous vehicles via AR headsets, the tool offers a realistic simulation that surpasses traditional stationary simulators. The Glasgow team examined three interface prototypes—RoadAlert, reARview, and Gem—that convey critical information about self-driving cars’ positions and intentions. Testing with a focus group revealed that cyclists’ needs differ by region: riders in Stockholm prefer detailed positional tracking, Muscat cyclists favor immediate signals, and those in Glasgow want both location data and clear intent indicators. The research highlights the need for self-driving cars to adapt their communication methods to local road cultures, a finding that could lead to safer interactions between cyclists and autonomous vehicles. The project, led by Professor Stephen Brewster, reinforces the potential of AR technology to enhance road safety and will be featured at the CHI Conference with two award-recognized papers.

(PRESS RELEASE) GLASGOW, 10-Apr-2025 — /EuropaWire/ — University of Glasgow researchers have introduced a breakthrough tool that rapidly prototypes augmented reality (AR) experiences, offering fresh insights into how cyclists can safely navigate roads alongside self-driving cars. Dubbed CycleARcade, this innovative system leverages AR headsets to allow cyclists to perceive and interact with simulated autonomous vehicles while riding in real-world environments. Unlike conventional simulators that confine riders to stationary bikes with surrounding screens, CycleARcade lets cyclists freely ride in open spaces where virtual vehicles are projected through their headsets.

The Glasgow team used CycleARcade to experiment with new interface designs that could give riders a kind of ‘sixth sense’—alerting them to the intentions of nearby self-driving cars. The system facilitated comprehensive testing with a focus group of 20 cyclists who evaluated three distinct virtual displays: one overlaying signals directly on the road surface paired with spatial audio (RoadAlert), another providing a virtual rear-view mirror via AR glasses (reARview), and a third utilizing handlebar-mounted displays (Gem). These interfaces were designed to selectively highlight vehicles posing the greatest risk, such as those approaching from behind or not yielding.

https://youtu.be/OoTRZGz-9-s

Moreover, CycleARcade was deployed across varied international settings as researchers compared road safety expectations among cyclists from Sweden, Oman, and Scotland. In Stockholm, riders preferred to track a vehicle’s location to gauge its behavior, while cyclists in Muscat favored immediate, clear signals due to the fast-paced urban environment. Meanwhile, participants from Glasgow, where dedicated cycle lanes are limited, desired a balance of positional information and explicit vehicle intent cues. These findings underline that local road cultures shape how cyclists interact with autonomous vehicles, suggesting that future self-driving cars may need localized communication protocols.

The CycleARcade project, led by Professor Stephen Brewster in the School of Computing Science, builds on previous work exploring the complex non-verbal signals traditionally exchanged between human drivers and cyclists. The team will present two papers at the upcoming CHI Conference in Yokohama—‘Around the World in 60 Cyclists: Evaluating Autonomous Vehicle-Cyclist Interfaces Across Cultures’ and ‘evARything, evARywhere, all at once: Exploring Scalable Holistic Autonomous Vehicle-Cyclist Interfaces’—which have already garnered a prestigious Honorable Mention award for being in the top 5% of submissions. Professor Brewster emphasizes that while the technology is designed to augment cyclists’ awareness rather than become a necessity, it has the potential to transform interactions between riders and self-driving cars, paving the way for safer road-sharing in the future.

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SOURCE: University of Glasgow