Volvo is exploring and designing human communication for self-driving cars so it can offer one form of communication for all drivers across the globe.
According to Mikael Ljung Aust, Senior Technical Leader for Collision Avoidance Functions at the Volvo Cars Safety Centre, it is important to have a global standard because these cars “will be everywhere and they will need to move around in any market in a multitude of languages.”
“You don’t want to have a car speaking one communication language in one country, and another language in another country,” said Ljung Aust. “Because if you do there are risks of misunderstanding.”
Ljung Aust said the goal will be to find a body language that everyone understands, and that having a global standard for communication means following basic ground rules: selecting a communication language that everyone understands, and ensuring it is fairly quick to avoid uncertainties in traffic situations.
Volvo is investigating sounds that can indicate what an autonomous car’s intentions to other road users are.
“What we really need is three or four key sounds that tell you what the car is going to do. One of these sounds is informing the driver or the pedestrians around the car what its intentions are, for example: ‘I do not intend to move,’” said Ljung Aust. “For this, we use a low frequency sound, one we as humans naturally associate with something big. It’s a pulse, oscillating very slowly, which indicates the car is standing still.”
However, since sound is often more effective with a visual display, Volvo Cars is looking into the possibility of replacing the eye-to-eye acknowledgement of drivers and other road users with contextual lights on the vehicle.
To learn more about Volvo’s research, watch the video with Ljung Aust.
