Car2Pedestrian-Communication: Protection of Vulnerable Road Users Using Smartphones

The protection of vulnerable road users, like pedestrians and bicyclists, and the communication between vehicles and their environment, which is called Car2X-Communication, are two scopes in the development of the automotive industry that have gained much interest in the last years. This paper links together both topics by presenting a concept for the communication between vehicles and vulnerable road users, called Car2Pedestrian-Communication. A system architecture is presented that uses smartphones for the detection of vulnerable road users and for the transmission of data between the vehicle and the pedestrian. Based on the transmitted information, the collision risk between the vehicle and the pedestrian is estimated and a warning is given to the driver and the pedestrian.