To help make autonomous vehicles more trustworthy to people, Jaguar Land Rover has experimented by giving driverless pods ‘virtual eyes’ so they can interact with others around them.
According the studies, 63 per cent of pedestrians and cyclists worry about crossing the road in the future where driverless vehicles will likely be in use, but along with autonomous vehicle specialists Aurrigo, JLR hope to make them feel friendlier.
To allow them to connect with other road users, the virtual eyes have been installed on the pods to work out “how much information future self-driving cars should share with users or pedestrians to ensure that people trust the technology” – something which all manufacturers will need to take into consideration in the future.
Running on mocked-up streets, the pods collect data on how pedestrians interact with them and then psychologists analyse how much confidence they have with the vehicles.
To show pedestrians they won’t move until they’ve crossed the road, the virtual eyes look towards people to show they’ve been recognised and will let them walk across.
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Pete Bennett, Jaguar Land Rover future mobility research manager, said: “It’s second-nature to glance at the driver of the approaching vehicle before stepping into the road. Understanding how this translates in tomorrow’s more automated world is important.
“We want to know if it is beneficial to provide humans with information about a vehicle’s intentions or whether simply letting a pedestrian know it has been recognised is enough to improve confidence.”
The tests where the autonomous pods were used are part of wider trials and studies to figure out how driverless vehicles will work in a modern society.
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