While great strides have been taken in advancing the field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), challenges abound in understanding and improving how Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) will interact with and within society. Through this paper, the authors attempt to paint the picture of challenges unique to the study and advancement of interfaces between AVs and vulnerable road users (VRUs). In turn, these gaps in research highlight the opportunities for academia, industry, and public policy to collaborate and advance the state of the art of AV-VRU interaction, and the need for a dedicated forum for sharing insights across these various sectors.

Women are underrepresented in robotics, and this may be partly due to the educational emphasis on mechanical applications rather than social applications of robotics. This study aimed to investigate whether teaching robotics using social robots increased girls' engagement compared to using more mechanical vex robots. 20 girls were recruited from school robotics classes. They were taught 30 minutes of VEX robotics and 30 minutes of social robotics in a counter-balanced order. Engagement was measured using questionnaires and observations. Results showed that girls were significantly more engaged in the social robot classes than the vex robot classes. This pilot study suggests a possible way to encourage more girls to study robotics.