Bio-inspired communication between automated vehicle and pedestrian

The challenge

The development of automated vehicles happens at an extraordinary pace, but it is important that the human can keep up with this. Automated vehicles lack the ability to communicate with their surrounding and share their intent, thereby leading to mistrust of human road users, negatively impacting the technology acceptance.

The solution

An external human-machine interface can be used to overcome this gap in communication. Current solutions typically rely on the use of text or light, but suffer with issues of visibility, unambiguous interpretation and intuitive understanding. My proposed solution relies on principes derived from nature, thereby leading to an external human-machine interface that can intuitively serve to communicate intent, thereby facilitating the interaction between automated vehicles and the surrounding and helping make this a positive experience.