Mercedes has big plans for autonomous vehicles but,
like other automakers exploring the technology, they’re being faced with a
question about how to establish trust between humans and machines. Mercedes says that self-driving
vehicles need to express empathy and trustworthiness in order to be successful.
That’s relatively easy for a human to do, but the task is much more difficult
when you’re talking about a car.
This is relatively new field, but Daimler
futurologist Alexander Mankowsky explained “People need to be able to quickly
and reliably gauge what an autonomous vehicle is going to do next. The vehicle
must therefore provide information about its intentions in a way that people
can grasp immediately and intuitively.”
As part of this effort, Mercedes has introduced the
S-Class cooperative concept which features a 360° light signaling system for
communicating with pedestrians and surrounding traffic. When the concept is
operating in autonomous driving mode, a series of turquoise lights help to
indicate its next actions.
The lights will slowly flash to indicate the vehicle
is about to begin braking. Likewise, the
lights will flash rapidly to inform people that it is about to start moving.
The model is also equipped with a dedicated light that indicates whether or not
the vehicle is autonomous driving mode.
One of the concept’s more interesting features is a
set of lights on the roof which respond to pedestrians. The vehicle follows
their movements and illuminates corresponding lights to indicate that the car
is aware of their presence. Mercedes says this is an attempt to recreate the
“natural eye contact that would have taken place between the driver and
pedestrians.”
Mercedes built the concept after conducting several
studies which showed light signaling has a strong effect on the acceptance of
autonomous vehicles. The studies also showed the lights helped pedestrians feel
safer and participants preferred a full 360° display.
