Promised as a solution to reduce the number of accidents and dangerous behavior on the road, driverless cars there is still a long way to go before imposing itself on the world fleet. From time to time, real test vehicles make headlines for their inappropriate or strange behavior, making life difficult for other users.
Stopping on the highway is, of course, very dangerous. So, when your “self-driving” car brakes for no reason, here’s what to worry about… Tesla is under investigation in the US. https://t.co/N1mStJmDjE
— AutoPlus (@AutoPlusMag) June 6, 2022
with Researchers at the University of Tokyo came up with a way to make it easier mutual understanding between pedestrians and driverless cars. To do this, they equipped their test car with an unusual item: eyes !
“Eye contact” to indicate that the car has seen you
With front-mounted mechanical lugs, the vehicle is designed for the project communicates intentions more clearly to pedestrians. These spheres are constantly moving in all directions to analyze anything that might affect their path. If the car ever detects a person wishing to cross the road, its eyes are attached on it so she could understand what she was detected by car sensors, and cross without asking any questions. Conversely, if the car did not take into account the pedestrian, it simply will not look at him. Then it would be dangerous to cross the road.
How soon can the self-driving car revolution begin? Will autonomous driving ever really happen? https://t.co/pe4CPsYxde
— AutoPlus (@AutoPlusMag) January 12, 2022
Very encouraging results
Tried on the University of Tokyo campus and in virtual reality, operations carried out by Japanese researchers are definitive. Subjects had to make a decision whether or not to cross the road when driverless cars approached, one with eyes, one without, in less than three seconds. The number of dangerous crossings on an autonomous car with two eyes is reduced by 64% compared to a “classic” autonomous car.
Eyes on our cars soon?
If the idea of looking at our cars makes you smile, this technology is a real breakthrough for autonomous cars. From there to democratization? At the moment, the “Watching car” project has not yet been tested in real conditions, when several pedestrians want to cross at the same time and on both sides of the road. The entire project is available here.
A new report claims that self-driving cars will eventually make it impossible for humans to drive manually. But is it really possible? https://t.co/jH3TZjV4dj
— AutoPlus (@AutoPlusMag) September 16, 2021
Source: Auto Plus
Robert is an experienced journalist who has been covering the automobile industry for over a decade. He has a deep understanding of the latest technologies and trends in the industry and is known for his thorough and in-depth reporting.