Car ‘eyes’ could help people to cross road Driverless pod that ‘looks’ at pedestrians tested
DRIVERLESS cars with ‘virtual eyes’ are being tested in the region to see how they react to pedestrians.
Autonomous vehicle specialist Aurrigo has teamed up with Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) to fit the eyes to the front of its driverless pods to understand how humans trust self-driving vehicles.
The car’s ‘eyes’ seek out pedestrians – appearing to look at them, signalling it has identified them and intends to take avoiding action.
JLR has enlisted the help of cognitive psychologists to understand how vehicle behaviour affects human confidence in new technology.
The driverless pods are being tested on a fabricated street at Aurrigo’s lab in Coventry while the behaviour of pedestrians is analysed as they wait to cross the road. The virtual eyes have been devised by a team of advanced engineers in JLR’s Future Mobility division.
Engineers record trust levels in the person before and after the pod makes eye contact to find out whether it generates sufficient confidence that it would stop for them.
David Keene, chief executive of Aurrigo, said: “Safety is at the heart of our autonomous technology and our close working relationship with JLR meant we could quickly accommodate ‘virtual eyes’ onto a number of our pods to facilitate this important study.
“The valuable information will be used as part of the UK Autodrive programme and will also shape future developments in how we bring self-driving vehicles on to the pavements, streets and roads of the UK and overseas.”
The trials are part of a wider study exploring how autonomous vehicles can replicate human behaviour and reactions when driving. More than 500 people have been studied interacting with the self-driving Aurrigo pods.
Pete Bennett, future mobility research manager at Jaguar Land Rover, added: “It’s secondnature 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.”