JLR tests self-driving cars which make ‘eye contact’

Jaguar Land Rover has fitted ‘virtual eyes’ to intelligent pods to its autonomous vehicles to understand ways in which humans will trust self-driving vehicles.

The ‘eyes’ seek out the pedestrian - appearing to ‘look’ directly at them - signalling to road users that it has identified them, and will avoid them.

The ‘eye pods’ will help work out how much information self-driving cars should share with users or pedestrians to ensure that people trust the technology.

A team of cognitive psychologists have been enlisted to better understand how vehicle behaviour affects human confidence in new technology. The trust trials form part of Jaguar Land Rover’s government-supported UK Autodrive project.

The intelligent pods run autonomously on a fabricated street scene in Coventry, while the behaviour of pedestrians is analysed as they wait to cross the road.

Engineers record trust levels in the person before and after the pod makes ‘eye contact’ to find out whether it generates sufficient confidence that it would stop for them.

The trials are part of a wider study exploring how future connected and autonomous vehicles can replicate human behaviour and reactions when driving. As part of the study, more than 500 test subjects have been studied interacting with the self-driving pods, designed by UK Autodrive partner Aurrigo.