In the future autonomous car there will be in each vehicle dozens, if not hundreds, of eyes, sensors of all colors (RADAR, LIDAR, …) and cameras of all definitions and sensitivities that will be in charge of seeing, listening, checking, analyzing , process and generate the appropriate information so that in real time all the actors in this new scenario have the greatest possible confidence in what is happening around them.
And in this scenario, an automotive company has just shown some large ‘virtual eyes’ that it has developed together with several of its partners to help understand how humans will behave in front of autonomous cars and find out if they will be able to trust them. .
Jaguar Land Rover, together with the British Autodrive consortium and a team of psychologists have launched this initiative because in the latest studies carried out almost 65 percent of pedestrians are concerned, in a future full of autonomous cars, with the simple fact that cross the streets. The ‘virtual eyes’ are intended to help determine how much information future autonomous vehicles should share with users or pedestrians to ensure that everyone trusts each other in this new technology.
The ‘eyes’ have been devised by a team of advanced engineers working in Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility division. With them, intelligent vehicles look for the pedestrian, seeming to ‘look’ directly at them, which indicates to him that he has been identified by the vehicle, and therefore that the car will act prudently avoiding any type of problem.
The project’s engineers and psychologists record pedestrian confidence levels before and after the intelligent, autonomous vehicle makes eye contact, to see if it creates enough confidence that the vehicle will stop.
Pete Bennett, Future Mobility Research Manager for Jaguar Land Rover, notes that “it is in human nature to look into the eyes of the driver of the approaching vehicle before setting off at an intersection. Understanding how this should translate to the automated world of the future is very important. We want to know if it will really be beneficial to offer pedestrians information about the “intentions” of the approaching vehicle or if it is simply enough for the pedestrian to understand that they have been recognized and this generates sufficient security “.
The tests carried out by Jaguar Land Rover and the Autodrive consortium are part of a larger study investigating how autonomous vehicles can replicate human intentions when driving. As part of the study, more than 500 tests have been carried out with people in which the interaction with the smart points designed by the company Aurrigo, partner of UK Autodrive, has been analyzed.
Until the smart, autonomous, connected car arrives, in a few years to come, we will see many more studies and initiatives that try to generate sufficient confidence and safety in pedestrians, which will make it less difficult to achieve the primary objective of this type of vehicle without a driver, 0 accidents.
