Human Factors and Safety Group & Virtuocity

A big thank you to the team for their time, engagement, and thoughtful discussions.

Yesterday, we had the pleasure of hosting the Department for Transport (DfT) Senior Analyst Team at Virtuocity. It was a fantastic opportunity to showcase our ongoing work, share insights, and explore how advanced simulation and behavioural research can support evidence-based transport policy.

• An eHMI failure trial mainly affected younger pedestrians.

Keywords: Automated Vehicles; Interaction; Age; Older Pedestrians; external Human-Machine Interfaces; Yielding; Night-time; Virtual Reality

Highlights
• We investigated how kinematics, eHMI, and age affect crossing in day and nighttime.
• Older pedestrians adopted a different crossing strategy than younger pedestrians.
• eHMI decreased CIT for both age groups.
• eHMI was used and interpreted differently by younger and older pedestrians.

New publication 📢 "Crossing in the dark: Investigating the effect of vehicle kinematics and eHMI on older pedestrians’ crossing behavior in a virtual reality experiment" by Yee Mun Lee et al... doi.org/10.1016/j.js...

Wishing you all a lovely, relaxing, and healthy time with family and friends over the holidays, and all the best for 2026!

Asynchrony of directional auditory warnings and visual information in hands-on SAE level 2 automated vehicles: Analysis of driver responses As automated driving technology advances, the development of an efficient human-machine interface (HMI) for delivering hazard warnings becomes increasingly critical for maintaining driving safety. One...

📢 Fresh off the press!

“Asynchrony of directional auditory warnings and visual information in hands-on SAE level 2 automated vehicles: Analysis of driver responses” by Ali Arabian, Courtney Goodridge, and Natasha Merat OBE.

🔗 Read the full article here: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

@ptw86.bsky.social and Hsuan Chao represented at the booth along with Samantha Jamson, showcasing our projects and connecting with attendees.

@ibrahimozturk.bsky.social talked about their work on in-vehicle technologies, "An investigation of how drivers’ knowledge and use of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) varies between countries", from the Hi-Drive project.

Ruth has presented findings (How to expect the unexpected: A driving simulator evaluation of hazard anticipation training for novice drivers) from the Road Safety Trust-funded project, Enhancing Novice Drivers' Safety: Innovative Training to Improve Hazard Anticipation Skills.

Last week at the National Road Safety Conference by Road Safety GB. We had a fantastic time engaging with the road safety community!

A big thank you to everyone who visited us, asked questions, and engaged in meaningful discussions.

New publication: "Exploring the effects of sex category, gender roles, and gender stereotypes on one's own, women's and men's driving behaviour in Türkiye and France". We investigated the relationships between sex, gender roles, and driver behaviours across two countries.

doi.org/10.1016/j.re...

It is my pleasure to share that in 2028, we will be hosting the 9th International Conference on Traffic and Transport Psychology (ICTTP9). Exciting times ahead, we can’t wait to welcome you!

@markkula.bsky.social, @hfs-its-leeds.bsky.social, @envleeds.bsky.social, @universityofleeds.bsky.social

Yesterday, Dr. Zahabi gave an insightful overview of her research and engaged in thoughtful discussions around future collaboration opportunities. It was a pleasure to explore shared interests and exchange ideas in human factors and human-system interaction.

We are honoured to host Assoc. Prof. Dr. Maryam Zahabi (Director of the Human-System Interaction (HSI) Lab) from Texas A&M University, as part of her sabbatical visit to our group.

@ptw86.bsky.social and Hsuan Chao will be exhibiting with a desktop simulator set up to show some of our use cases to delegates, while @ibrahimozturk.bsky.social and Ruth Madigan will be presenting some of their latest work.

On the 4th and 5th November, we're going to be attending and exhibiting at The National Road Safety Conference, organised by Road Safety GB, at Wyboston Lakes, England.

Fatigue assessment of forklift operators in a 12-hour shift system - Tianbo Wang, Ibrahim Öztürk, Wei Lyu, Zuojiang Ning, 2025 Background In recent years, numerous large-scale manufacturing enterprises in Northeastern China have shifted from the conventional 8-h shift model to an extend...

Our new paper, "Fatigue assessment of forklift operators in a 12-hour shift system", led by Tianbo Wang, was published in WORK: A journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation. Check the full text here: doi.org/10.1177/1051...

🔍 I’m pleased to share our latest open-access article <Is drivers’ interaction with pedestrians affected by cognitive load and LED bands? A driving simulator study investigating performance across two age groups during different ambient lighting conditions> now published in TRF.

Here’s what we packed in:
🔑 Three keynotes
⭐ 6 special sessions
🧩 25 parallel sessions with 109 presentations
📌 24 posters
🕹️ Virtuocity tours
🍽️ A great conference dinner with joyful dancing! 💃🕺

@envleeds.bsky.social, @universityofleeds.bsky.social

The 20th RS5C conference officially concluded! ✅ What a joy to co-organise with the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI). Massive thanks to the organising & scientific committees, our brilliant volunteers, and every author and 218 delegates who joined us from 37 countries 🌎

We’ve wrapped the pre- #RS5C conference Virtuocity tours and welcome reception 🎉 Huge thanks to everyone who attended today. Can’t wait to kick off the conference tomorrow! 🏵

🛴 New Publication! I’m delighted to share our new article “Exploring attitudes and behavioural intentions towards e-scooter use in Türkiye: Differences between users and non-users” with @nazliakay.bsky.social, published in the Journal of Transport Geography.

📖 Open Access: doi.org/10.1016/j.jt...

It’s always a pleasure to contribute to this vibrant community and exchange ideas on the future. If you’re attending, come join the discussions and connect with us!

#AutoUI2025 #HumanFactors #AutomotiveUI #RoadSafety #TransportResearch #DrivingBehaviour #HMI #FutureMobility

📄 Drivers’ Attention to Dash-Based Human-Machine Interfaces: The Effect of Partial Automation and Cognitive Load
Format: Full paper
Authors:
Hao Qin, Rafael Gonçalves, Courtney Goodridge, and Natasha Merat

📄 Measuring Driver Electrodermal Activity when Exposed to HMIs Conveying Uncertainty in Conditional Automated Driving
Format: Full paper
Authors: Jorge Pardo, Xiaomeng Li, Michael Gerber, Rafael Gonçalves, Jonny Kuo, Mike Lenné, and Ronald Schroeter

📄 Measuring Passengers’ Comfort and Perceived Safety in Automated Driving: Good Practices and Challenges
Format: Workshop
Organisers: Chen Peng, Pavlo Bazilinskyy, Yueteng Yu, Natasha Merat

📄 What makes a ready driver? A deep dive into the measurement and validation of readiness estimation for driver monitoring systems of partially automated (SAE level 2) vehicles by Rafael Cirino Gonçalves, Courtney Michael Goodridge, Jorge Pardo, Amélie Reher, Jonny Kuo, Audrey Bruneau, Natasha Merat

🚗✨ Next month, we’ll be presenting at the 17th International ACM Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutoUI 2025).

Our researchers will be sharing cutting-edge work on human factors, driver behaviour, and automotive interaction design.

We also hosted a booth to showcase Virtuocity, our state-of-the-art simulation and research facility, and how it supports innovation in transport safety.

A huge thank you to colleagues at LCC and the WYCA for their leadership and commitment to collaboration and Vision Zero across West Yorkshire.