Jaguar Land Rover’s trials of automated vehicle technology have taken a new turn, one which will be indicated by lights.

The Coventry based motor company have been working on the UK Autodrive project, which is focusing on the viability of autonomous cars and the technology which may best help the cars enter a road network.

Last year, JLR’s research saw their automated pod technology unveil special eyes at the front of the vehicle which helped pedestrians understand whether an automated car had acknowledged their presence. Now, in partnership with Aurrigo, JLR have developed a light indication system which will give people a better idea of what the vehicle intends to do and the direction it is planning to travel.

The autonomous pod will project light bars onto the road in front of it, lights which get wider when the vehicle is about to speed up and shorten when the car is about to stop. The led lights will also curve to show the direction which the pod plans to travel.

Jaguar Land Rover have created a fabricated street scene at their facility in Coventry with the hope of developing a technology which the public can trust, thus allowing smoother integration of automated vehicle technology in to the network.

“The trials are about understanding how much information a self-driving vehicle should share with a pedestrian to gain their trust,” said JLR’s Future Mobility lead, Pete Bennett.

“Just like any new technology, humans have to learn to trust it, and when it comes to autonomous vehicles, pedestrians must have confidence they can cross the road safely. This pioneering research is forming the basis of ongoing development into how self-driving cars will interact with people in the future.”

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