In an effort to create trust between pedestrians and self-driving vehicles, Jaguar Land Rover has developed a driverless pod with eyes that signal the vehicle's intent to human observers. (Jaguar Land Rover) (Jaguar Landrover)One of the biggest challenges facing car companies developing driverless vehicles has little do with sophisticated robotics or laser technology. Instead, they must figure out how to engineer something far more amorphous but no less important: human trust, the kind that is communicated when human drivers and pedestrians make eye contact at a crosswalk. People are not only uneasy about interacting with self-driving vehicles — they’re also apprehensive about riding inside them. “Americans are starting to feel more comfortable with the idea of self-driving vehicles,” AAA automotive engineering and industry relations director Greg Brannon said in February.

Source: Washington Post August 29, 2018 17:26 UTC