It’s hard to make eye contact with an autonomous vehicle, so a concept called ‘Blink’ has been developed by a group at the Royal College of Art and Imperial College in London that uses a transparent OLED on the windscreen of a car to signal to pedestrians that it is aware of their presence. If the car detects a pedestrian, it shows a figure with their movements on the windscreen. The pedestrian can then control the transaction, using hand signals. If the hand is raised, the figure will go green and the car will stop. If the hand is placed to the side, the figure would turn red and the car would proceed.
An alternative configuration would use LEDs on the corners of vehicles to signal.
Analyst Comment
Since I was hit by a car while cycling a few years ago, I certainly look for eye contact these days with drivers, so I appreciate the thought that has gone into this idea. However, some scientists are worried about pedestrians causing gridlock by holding cars up.
