Jaguar’s Autonomous Pod Communicates With Pedestrians Via Light Beams

When it comes to self-driving cars, Jaguar Land Rover is thinking of the small but important details. The automaker has studied ways to combat motion sickness in autonomous cars as our attention turns away from the road and to our smartphones. And now, it’s working on lights that can help these cars communicate with pedestrians.

Jaguar is testing a system that projects images onto the road to show pedestrians the car’s intended path of travel. A series of lines projected onto the road fan out left or right to indicate where a car will turn. These lines also indicate changes in speed. Gaps between the lines shorten when the pod comes to a stop, and widen as the car accelerates. In the future, the projections on the road could even inform pedestrians of potential road obstacles.

The autonomous pods were developed by autonomous tech company Aurrigo. The tests are part of Jaguar’s research into how people can develop trust in autonomous cars. Also as part of the tests, Jaguar fitted “virtual eyes” to the autonomous pods so they can make eye contact with pedestrians. The research is part of Jaguar Land Rover’s involvement with the Autodrive project that is supported by the U.K. government.

The automaker became one of the first to test autonomous cars on public roads in the U.K. Meanwhile, it has also been testing technology that allows vehicles to communicate with other cars on the road, and even with traffic lights and other road infrastructure.

Source: Jaguar Land Rover

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