There is a real psychological effect to it. I think Mercedes was first to test it years ago. not with eyes but with a long LED light strip in the upper area of the front window. The goal was to communicate the “attention” of the vehicle to a pedestrian waiting to cross the street in a similar way that real drivers catch eye contact with pedestrians. This reassures the pedestrian that it is safe to cross the street - hey the guy sees me, I can safely go.
Without this feedback it has been found that people are overly cautious, not trusting the autonomous vehicles and it simply causes stress.
This is a real problem discovered years ago that has a novel funny solution instead of LED strip :)
In partially automated production processes where robots move around alongside humans, robots may be programmed to “look” in the direction they intend to move before moving. This may be by rotating their chassis or via LEDs/screens. This allows the humans to anticipate the robot’s movements rather than be surprised by it.
This is from a TV documentary I saw years ago, so you won’t get a source for me. Trust me, bro… or don’t.
I’ve heard the same thing with robots giving people space. I heard about some study or another where humans working alongside robots (e.g. robotic arms in a factory) felt a lot more comfortable when robots exaggerated how much distance they put between themselves and the person to signal that they “know” the person is there and won’t run into them.
Yeah the idea is solid, the execution… unsettling!
I think a better solution might be something like a few large lights with aimable lenses and about the level of brightness of a traffic light. The lenses allow you to direct the lighting such that a person being “focused” on sees a clear indicator on the vehicle, but someone outside that focus area would not see the light.
Im sure there’s more to it than that, but a way to signal to pedestrians that the vehicle is aware of them and waiting for them to move solves a real problem.
There is a real psychological effect to it. I think Mercedes was first to test it years ago. not with eyes but with a long LED light strip in the upper area of the front window. The goal was to communicate the “attention” of the vehicle to a pedestrian waiting to cross the street in a similar way that real drivers catch eye contact with pedestrians. This reassures the pedestrian that it is safe to cross the street - hey the guy sees me, I can safely go.
Without this feedback it has been found that people are overly cautious, not trusting the autonomous vehicles and it simply causes stress.
This is a real problem discovered years ago that has a novel funny solution instead of LED strip :)
In partially automated production processes where robots move around alongside humans, robots may be programmed to “look” in the direction they intend to move before moving. This may be by rotating their chassis or via LEDs/screens. This allows the humans to anticipate the robot’s movements rather than be surprised by it.
This is from a TV documentary I saw years ago, so you won’t get a source for me. Trust me, bro… or don’t.
I’ve heard the same thing with robots giving people space. I heard about some study or another where humans working alongside robots (e.g. robotic arms in a factory) felt a lot more comfortable when robots exaggerated how much distance they put between themselves and the person to signal that they “know” the person is there and won’t run into them.
Yeah the idea is solid, the execution… unsettling!
I think a better solution might be something like a few large lights with aimable lenses and about the level of brightness of a traffic light. The lenses allow you to direct the lighting such that a person being “focused” on sees a clear indicator on the vehicle, but someone outside that focus area would not see the light.
Im sure there’s more to it than that, but a way to signal to pedestrians that the vehicle is aware of them and waiting for them to move solves a real problem.
I much prefer the LED strips lol