AUTOMATED VEHICLE CONTROL STRATEGY FOR PEDESTRIAN CROWDS

A system (10) for operating an automated vehicle in a crowd of pedestrians (14) includes an object-detector (16), optionally, a signal detector, and a controller (34). The object-detector (16) detects pedestrians (14) proximate to a host-vehicle (12). The signal-detector (18) detects a signal-state (20) displayed by a traffic-signal (22) that displays a stop-state (24) that indicates when the host-vehicle (12) should stop (38) so the pedestrians (14) can cross in front of the host-vehicle (12), and displays a go-state (26) that indicates when the pedestrians (14) should stop (38) passing in front of the host-vehicle (12) so that the host-vehicle (12) can go forward. The controller (34) is in control of movement of the host-vehicle (12) and in communication with the object-detector (16) and the signal-detector (18). The controller (34) operates the host-vehicle (12) to stop (38) the host-vehicle (12) when the stop-state (24) is displayed, and operates the host-vehicle (12) to creep-forward (40) after a wait-interval (42) after the traffic-signal (22) changes to the go-state (26) when the pedestrians (14) fail to stop (38) passing in front of the host-vehicle (12).