When the eyes look back in the autonomous vehicle: Informal communication in autonomous driving.
You know it, you cross the street and protect yourself by looking into the eyes of the drivers in the cars. The view guarantees that you have been seen. A research by the University of Tokyo has taken on informal communication in road traffic and states that robotic eyes could help prevent accidents. actually had JLR in Coventry this idea already and installed Eyes on the autonomous pods.
Robotic eyes looking back in the autonomous car
The University of Tokyo study recommends installing eyes in autonomous vehicles to increase pedestrian safety. During the study, the participants were placed in a virtual reality environment in which they were asked to cross a street in front of a moving vehicle.
The result showed that humans can make safer or more efficient decisions when the vehicle is equipped with robotic eyes. In this way the pedestrians were looked at and their presence was registered or they looked away. It was clear to the people that they were not being noticed.
The missing eye-catcher makes it difficult informal communication between automated and human road users. Therefore, the reaction to robot eyes in the car was tested in four scenarios. In two cases the car had eyes and in two it didn’t. The VR experiment was monitored by cameras and the 18 participants were men and women between the ages of 18 and 49.
They had three seconds to decide whether to cross the road in front of the car, after going through the situations in random order several times. The researchers observed the behavior and calculated how often the subjects crossed the street, when they should have waited and stopped when they were supposed to cross.
Male participants in particular often crossed the street in a risky manner. This shows that people’s behavior is different. However, the risky behavior of crossing the street if the car didn’t stop was reduced by the robot eyes staring. In women, the study found that the gaze tended to reduce risky behavior. Ultimately, the experiment showed that the view made crossing easier or safer for everyone.
However, the experimental circumstances were characterized by a small sample and the certainty of virtual reality, so that the study could deviate from real behavior. However, it illustrates the habituation factor in autonomous driving.