Robotic eyes on self-driving vehicles could reduce road accidents, says research

To ensure pedestrian safety from self-driving vehicles, a new study has proposed that installing robotic eyes on autonomous vehicles affects the psychology of walkers, improving their safety. In the experiment, a self-driving golf cart was fitted with two large, remote-controlled robotic eyes similar to Pixar movie Cars. The result showed the participants could make safer or more efficient decisions when the vehicle was equipped with robotic eyes that either looked at the pedestrian or away. They wished to test if installing moving eyes on the cart would affect people’s more risky behaviour in this case, whether people would still cross the road in front of a moving vehicle when in a hurry.