Driving simulators often struggle to accurately simulate vulnerable road users (VRUs) in safety-critical scenarios. We present a framework integrating immersive virtual reality and human motion capture with the CARLA driving simulator. This setup allows simulations where real human agents act as VRUs interacting with an AI-equipped ego car featuring advanced ADAS functions. It enables testing and validation of new ADAS features with real pedestrian behaviors, providing valuable data on VRU reactions in dynamic traffic environments. This approach enhances the realism of VRU simulations and supports the development and evaluation of safer, more effective ADAS technologies for real-world applications.

• An overview of SOTA driving simulators and their limitations, covering the behavior of vulnerable road users in dynamic traffic environments
• The capabilities of the framework that integrates the CARLA simulator with the VR Meta Quest Pro headset, involving real human agents as pedestrians
• The application domains and the use cases of the proposed VR+CARLA simulation framework