autoevolution
 

Jaguar Land Rover Puts Eyes on Driverless Pods to Build Trust With Pedestrians

According to research, the biggest obstacle driverless vehicles have to overcome is trust with pedestrians. To study human behavior around autonomous vehicles and build trust, Jaguar Land Rover is putting eyes on its driverless pods.
Jaguar Land Rover is testing driverless pods with virtual eyes to build trust with pedestrians 7 photos
Photo: Jaguar Land Rover
JLR is testing a driverless pod with virtual eyes to study pedestrians' behavior around autonomous vehiclesJLR is testing a driverless pod with virtual eyes to study pedestrians' behavior around autonomous vehiclesJLR is testing a driverless pod with virtual eyes to study pedestrians' behavior around autonomous vehiclesJLR is testing a driverless pod with virtual eyes to study pedestrians' behavior around autonomous vehiclesJLR is testing a driverless pod with virtual eyes to study pedestrians' behavior around autonomous vehiclesJLR is testing a driverless pod with virtual eyes to study pedestrians' behavior around autonomous vehicles
The project is part of the government-supported UK Autodrive initiative and is being deployed by the the Jaguar Land Rover Future Mobility division. It’s meant to help carmakers better understand how people react around driverless cars and determine if something can be done to make them trust these vehicles.

As of this moment, about 63 percent of pedestrians and cyclists say they would feel less safe on the road with driverless cars, because they can’t trust technology to protect them. So JLR is putting eyes on its pods, to assure people they’re being “seen.”

For the record, the eyes on the pods don’t really “see” anything, but they do seem to be an efficient way of communicating with pedestrians that their sensors have noticed them. They’re virtual, cartoonish eyes with eyelids, which move from object to object.

For the time being, the virtual eyes are tested in-house. They won’t necessarily be included on Jaguar or Land Rover driverless vehicles, but they will serve to help the company understand human behavior. The goal is to find out whether visual cues from the car (the pod, in this context) would make pedestrians feel safer at zebra crossings, as the video at the bottom of the page shows.

“It’s second nature to glance at the driver of an approaching vehicle before stepping into the road. Understanding how this translates in tomorrow’s more automated world is important,” Pete Bennet, Jaguar Land Rover’s Future Mobility Research Manager, says.

“We want to know if it is beneficial to provide humans with information about a vehicle’s intentions or whether simply letting a pedestrian know it has been recognized is enough to improve confidence,” Bennet adds.

If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories