To study future communication needs between pedestrians and shared automated vehicles (SAVs), an interface that communicates the intentions of SAVs to pedestrians was designed and implemented in a virtual reality (VR) environment. This enabled the exploration of behaviors and experiences of 34 pedestrians when encountering SAVs, both with and without the interface, in several street crossing situations. All pedestrians assessed the level of perceived safety and comfort directly after each encounter with the SAV. The results show that the pedestrians' level of perceived safety and comfort is higher in encounters with the interface than in encounters without the interface. This may have a positive influence on the acceptance of SAVs, and implies that future SAVs may gain from this, or similar interface.