Ford tests colored light bar on ‘autonomous’ car for communication with road users
Car manufacturer Ford has tested a ‘self-driving’ car with a light bar on the roof. The colored light signals are intended to communicate to other road users what the vehicle is doing or what it is planning.
Ford reports that it has conducted tests in Germany with the Chemnitz University of Technology with a car that was supposed to give the impression that it was driving completely autonomously. The manufacturer provided the roof of the vehicle with a colored light bar. According to the manufacturer, the tests have shown that there is ‘great acceptance and confidence in’ the light signals. The company says it can go further with this, to further develop and refine the ‘visual language’.
The purpose of the lightbar is to communicate the intentions of the car to other road users, in an attempt to ‘bridge the communication gap between autonomous cars and people’. The light bar used blinking white, purple and turquoise light to indicate that the used Ford van was moving, about to pull up or yielding right of way.
The automaker says that after seeing the Ford Transit vehicle, 60 percent of the 173 people surveyed believed they were actually dealing with an autonomous driving vehicle. Turquoise turned out to be the best color according to Ford, because this color is more visible than white and, unlike purple, is not so easily confused with red.
The tests that took place in Germany complement previous research Ford conducted in the US using only white signals. As with the recent German tests, a car was used in the US at the time in which the human driver was hidden in a suit resembling a car seat. Passers-by had to think that they were dealing with a fully autonomous driving vehicle; This allows researchers to better determine how pedestrians and other road users react to the light signals.
Ford says it is developing a self-driving car that should be deployed for the first time in the United States in 2021. According to the company, it is crucial that there is an ‘industry standard for communicating driving intentions’.