Ford works on visual communication between autonomous cars and people

Manufacturers are already working on communication systems between autonomous cars and people

Various studies show human distrust of autonomous cars. Handing control of a machine over to artificial intelligence itself causes us fear. For this reason, several car manufacturers and companies linked to the sector are working to promote communication systems between autonomous cars and the people around them.

Ford is the latest to advance a visual language that encourages the information emitted by the autonomous car to everyone who is near the vehicle. For this reason, the use of light indicators seems to be one of the best options.

Just as, when we drive our own vehicle and see an approaching emergency vehicle, it is its lights and colours of the assistance services that make us understand what is happening.

Colours, a universal language

Establishing a universal colour code that would warn people of the actions an autonomous car is performing or is about to carry out immediately would provide information to pedestrians or cyclists. The best example would be the parallel with the colour codes used by traffic lights and pedestrians: three colours whose meaning and application are practically global.

Choosing colours that would universally warn about the task an autonomous car is carrying out would help the person who sees it make the appropriate decision without fear of not knowing the process the car is about to perform.

Increasing trust in autonomous cars

With this simple approach, the aim is to build human trust in autonomous machines.

Ford has experimented by simulating autonomous driving in one of its vehicles. Thanks to the recording of the video you can watch below, it has also served to study people’s behaviour when faced first with a car that moves, apparently autonomously, and second, how pedestrians and cyclists act in front of a vehicle that could be driving in an automated way, and their responses to the light code used by this vehicle depending on its activity.

https://youtu.be/KqQyYOPPn7w

After the experiments, the most and least accepted colours were determined. The definitive conclusion was that a high level of acceptance of this technology of visual communication was obtained and that, with it, pedestrian trust in the car increases.

It is simply one more experiment which, from the automotive industry, seeks to boost trust in autonomous cars and reduce the fear arising from their circulation on our roads.

Manufacturers bet on visual language

A new path that seeks to foster trust between humans and autonomous machines through communication between the two. Another proposal that comes shortly after the one we recently learned about concerning curious “eyed” vehicles by Jaguar and Land Rover.