Smile Pedestrians, That Approaching Autonomous Car Has Spotted You

The rush to autonomous motoring isn’t lacking in landmines for car companies, and the mingling of vehicles and pedestrians is certainly a ‘biggie’.

Swedish company Semcon AB however has developed an innovative way for pedestrians crossing a road to have some confidence the autonomous car approaching - with the driver not looking outside while attending to important matters on an iPad - has 'seen' them.

It has developed a front light system spanning the grille which switches to a smile when the vehicles’ various sensors and radars have detected the presence of 'foot traffic', has applied the brakes and calculated the vehicle will stop before the crossing.

Semcon says its research confirms 80 percent of pedestrians seek to make eye contact with the drivers of approaching vehicles before embarking on crossing the road. So, a smile on the grille will come as good news to most.