Jaguar Land Rover has developed a new method for self-driving vehicles to communicate with other road users through projections of the direction of travel onto the road ahead.
A series of projections get beamed onto the road indicating the intentions of the self-driving vehicle, for example stopping and turning to the left or right, as part of the new technology. There is also the potential for the projections to communicate obstacle detection and journey updates with pedestrians.
The projections have been tested on autonomous pods developed by Aurrigo. They display a series of lines or bars with adjustable spacing which shorten as the pod is preparing to brake and completely compresses as the pod stops. Similarly, as the pod moves off or accelerates the space between the lines grows and when approaching a turn the bars fan in the direction of travel.
The system was tested on a created street scene at the Coventry facility where trust levels from pedestrians were recorded and analysed from pods with and without the projections.
Pete Bennett, Future Mobility Research Manager at Jaguar Land Rover, said: “The trials are about understanding how much information a self-driving vehicle should share with a pedestrian to gain their trust. Just like any new technology, humans have to learn to trust it, and when it comes to autonomous vehicles, pedestrians must have confidence they can cross the road safely. This pioneering research is forming the basis of ongoing development into how self-driving cars will interact with people in the future.”
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