This paper studies road user trajectory prediction in mixed traffic, i.e. where vehicles and Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs, i.e. pedestrians, cyclists and other riders) closely share a common road space. We investigate if typical prediction components (scene graph representation, scene encoding, waypoint prediction, motion dynamics) should be specific to each road user class. Using the recent VRU-heavy View-of-Delft Prediction (VoD-P) dataset, we study several directions to improve the performance of the state-of-the-art map-based prediction models (PGP, TNT) in urban settings. First, we consider the use of class-specific map representations. Second, we investigate if the weights of different components of the model should be shared or separated by class. Finally, we augment VoD-P training data with automatically extracted trajectories from the 360-degree LiDAR scans by the recording vehicle. This data is made publicly available. We find that pre-training the model on auto-labels and making it class-specific leads to a reduction of up to 22.2%, 20.0%, and 18.2% in minADE (K = 10 samples) for pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles, respectively.

We present a vehicle system capable of navigating safely and efficiently around Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs), such as pedestrians and cyclists. The system comprises key modules for environment perception, localization and mapping, motion planning, and control, integrated into a prototype vehicle. A key innovation is a motion planner based on Topology-driven Model Predictive Control (T-MPC). The guidance layer generates multiple trajectories in parallel, each representing a distinct strategy for obstacle avoidance or non-passing. The underlying trajectory optimization constrains the joint probability of collision with VRUs under generic uncertainties. To address extraordinary situations ('edge cases') that go beyond the autonomous capabilities - such as construction zones or encounters with emergency responders - the system includes an option for remote human operation, supported by visual and haptic guidance. In simulation, our motion planner outperforms three baseline approaches in terms of safety and efficiency. We also demonstrate the full system in prototype vehicle tests on a closed track, both in autonomous and remotely operated modes.

This letter presents View-of-Delft Prediction, a new dataset for trajectory prediction, to address the lack of on-board trajectory datasets in urban mixed-traffic environments. View-of-Delft Prediction builds on the recently released urban View-of-Delft (VoD) dataset to make it suitable for trajectory prediction. Unique features of this dataset are the challenging road layouts of Delft, with many narrow roads and bridges, and the close proximity between vehicles and Vulnerable Road Users (VRUs). It contains a large proportion of VRUs, with 569 prediction instances for vehicles, 347 for cyclists, and 934 for pedestrians. We additionally provide high-definition map annotations for the VoD dataset to enable state-of-the-art prediction models to be used. We analyse two state-of-the-art trajectory prediction models, PGP and P2T, which originally were developed for vehicle-dominated traffic scenarios, to assess the strengths and weaknesses of current modelling approaches in mixed traffic settings with large numbers of VRUs. Our analysis shows that there is a significant domain gap between the vehicle-dominated nuScenes and VRU-dominated VoD Prediction datasets. The dataset is publicly released for non-commercial research purposes.