Tomorrow's self-driving cars could be communicating with pedestrians by that most elemental of... [+]
Ensuring that tomorrow’s fleet of self-driving cars will, as promised by the automotive soothsayers, be safer than its human occupants could ever muster is no small task. Sophisticated sensors have to be able to monitor the road and surroundings with pinpoint accuracy, while artificial intelligence software makes critical snap judgments, literally at every turn.
Importantly, future autos will be equipped with advanced car-to-car communications systems that will allow other vehicles sharing the roadway to make their presence known. And now Sweden’s Semcon AB has figured out how to make autonomous vehicles communicate with humans it encounters along the way, and it’s with the most elemental of non-verbal cues … a smile.
The idea is that without a human driver, pedestrians lack any visual indication that their presence is known, which otherwise might be accomplished by making eye contact with or getting a wave of acknowledgment (or perhaps "the finger" under stressful circumstances) from whoever’s behind the wheel. According to a survey Semcon conducted with the research company Inizio, eight out of 10 pedestrians queried say they don't trust self-driving cars.
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The company proposes that when an autonomous car comes to a stop sign or traffic light and “sees” someone standing at a crosswalk, a great big smile lights up at the front of the vehicle to confirm the vehicle will stop at a safe distance, and assure him or her it’s safe to cross the street.
Okay, so the notion of a smiling car might sound silly, but it serves to both humanize the technology and provide a common, albeit simplistic common language via which autonomous cars can communicate with humans. Semcon’s release on the topic explains The Smiling Car concept is the first step in an ongoing program, conducted with research institute Viktoria Swedish ICT, to create a global standard on how self-driving cars communicate with their surroundings.
“A lot of the discussions regarding self-driving cars are about the car’s technology. But how these vehicles will interact with unprotected road users is just as important. Self-driving cars need to communicate in a way that feels familiar and creates trust,” says Karin Eklund, Semcon’s head of user experience. “The strength behind The Smiling Car is that we allow people to communicate in the way they are used to, instead of taking an unnecessary detour via technology.”
The company hopes that the technology will eventually be able to distinguish a person’s head and eye movements to detect if he or she is looking at the car for assurance, and then provide immediate visual feedback. Add laser technology (and why the heck wouldn’t you?) and the system could be engineered to operate in darkness and inclement weather for an added element of safety, as well as areas in which designated pedestrian crossings don’t exist.
We can only imagine a world in which all of our cars come with a complete set of front-end emoji to convey all manner of sentiments to pedestrians, as well as occupants in other self-driving cars.
Until then, keep in mind that even the lowliest of rides today comes with a car-pedestrian communication system that’s nearly as old as the automobile itself. While it’s hardly as charming as a great big old grin lighting up across the front grille, the time-tested horn at the center of the steering wheel still gets the job done.
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