It’s much harder to misunderstand a red light than verbal instructions.

It wasn't a miscommunication. The pilot understood and was attempting to correctly follow the instructions of ATC. The error (as far as we can tell) was that the pilot wrongly believed that they were following those instructions, but the pilot did not know where they were.

So the next logical question is 'why didn't the pilot know where they were?', and there are a lot of possible answers to that question, which could conceivably be linked to communication (e.g.: not enough signage, they were told incorrectly, their maps were written in Klingon), but the primary problem was that the pilot believed they were crossing a different runway to the one they were actually crossing.

Would be cool if they had HUDs with a "driving line" and other pertinent info on the taxiway and runway.

One solution does not discount the other. In data security we talk about security in depth, security in layers, etc. The current proposal is _a_ solution, but not _the only_ solution nor even the only component of a comprehensive solution.

Which is why I was asking about a solution that addressed the aspect of the issue that the first solution did not.

Where was the miscommunication? The pilot readback was correct.

> Where was the miscommunication? The pilot readback was correct.

"Runway 4L was being used for takeoffs. The American Airlines aircraft did not follow air traffic control instructions. ATC audio shows they were told to “”cross runway 31 Left at Kilo” and instead crossed runway 4 Left at Juliet, in front of the accelerating Delta Boeing 737."

Crossing a runway, which you're not cleared to cross is a pretty bad case of miscommunication in my book.

That's the case when the readback is incorrect or missing, i.e. the pilot heard something that wasn't said. In this case, the instruction was communicated correctly on both ends. But it wasn't followed correctly.

Someone saying the exact same words back to you doesn’t prevent miscommunication. If the pilot and ATC had the same understanding of the situation then the pilot wouldn’t have done something likely to result in a crash.

If they have the correctly communicated instructions as you imply, then why weren't they followed? Is it not also possible they don't follow the red light if they think ATC instructed them to use that runway?

Hard to say at this stage, but initial impressions seem to be that the pilot was following the instructions but were mistaken about what was in front of them.