With driverless taxi services poised to expand across European cities this year, a new study is urging operators to equip vehicles with IoT enabled on-board traffic lights to signal to runners and pedestrians when it is safe to cross. Researchers from the University of Glasgow and KAIST in South Korea warn that runners, in particular, take more risks at crossings than walkers, potentially creating new hazards for autonomous vehicles unless safety systems are adapted. The study used augmented reality (AR) to simulate urban streets and investigate how runners and walkers interact differently with self-driving cars (AVs). While much AV research assumes that pedestrians behave cautiously, the team found that runners are a distinct—and riskier—group of road users. “In our research group, we’ve focused on developing systems to help autonomous vehicles communicate safely with cyclists and pedestrians,” said Stephen Brewster, Professor of Human Computer Interaction at the University of Glasgow. “But runners have largely been overlooked, even though running is the most popular physical activity worldwide, with over 600 million recreational runners. And with millions of AV trips now happening monthly, it’s clear that runners and self-driving cars will increasingly share the road.” What are eHMIs? To study this, 24 participants wore AR headsets outdoors, overlaying virtual AVs on real streets. They were instructed to either walk or run toward a junction while a simulated vehicle approached. The cars either displayed no signals or used one of two “external Human-Machine Interfaces,” or eHMIs—a term for vehicle-mounted lights that communicate the car’s intentions, essentially acting as on-board traffic lights. The first eHMI, LightRing, used a simple red-and-green light ring around the car. Green indicated it was safe to cross, red signalled the vehicle would not yield. The second, CyanBand, displayed animated cyan lights that swept inward to indicate braking and outward for