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External Human-Machine Interfaces: Which of 729 Colors Is Best for Signaling ‘Please (Do not) Cross’?

Future automated vehicles may be equipped with external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs) capable of signaling to pedestrians whether or not they can cross the road. There is currently no consensus on the correct colors for eHMIs. Industry and academia have already proposed a variety of eHMI colors, including red and green, as well as colors that are said to be neutral, such as cyan. A confusion that can arise with red and green is whether the color refers to the pedestrian (egocentric perspective) or the automated vehicle (allocentric perspective). We conducted two crowdsourcing experiments (N = 2000 each) with images depicting an automated vehicle equipped with an eHMI in the form of a rectangular display on the front bumper. The eHMI had one out of 729 colors from the RGB spectrum. In Experiment 1, participants rated the intuitiveness of a random subset of 100 of these eHMIs for signaling ‘please cross the road’, and in Experiment 2 for ‘please do NOT cross the road’. The results showed that for ‘please cross’, colors close to pure green were considered the most intuitive. For ‘please do NOT cross’, colors close to pure red were rated as the most intuitive, but with high standard deviations among participants. In addition, some participants rated green colors as intuitive for ‘please do NOT cross’. Results were consistent for men and women and for colorblind and non-colorblind persons. It is concluded that eHMIs should be green if the eHMI is intended to signal ‘please cross’, but green and red should be avoided if the eHMI is intended to signal ‘please do NOT cross’. Various neutral colors can be used for that purpose, including cyan, yellow, and purple.