Cars have always been interactive to a certain degree. They not only seem to have a personality but also communicate among themselves and to us through horns, lights other signals. Of course they aren’t able to do that without us, humans, behind the wheel. Not yet. Now that cars are becoming driverless, we all wonder how they are going to communicate with each other and with the passengers.
A company in California is exactly focused on that. Drive.ai is not only approaching how cars can drive autonomously but also how they can “talk.” That involves establishing a whole new language, a system that will allow passengers and non passengers to understand each other.
This system is more than a simple language, but rather the reinvention of the car itself, considering the complexity of these non-verbal communication problems.
Texts and pictures in billboards are being tested, and even emojis have been tried in order to establish a way to make drivers and non drivers express their behaviors. We are talking about situations that can go from the quite aggressive “get out of my way!” to a polite “please, after you.”
According to those who are deeply studying the subject, there’s no better way to understand and create this brand new reality than testing. That means that they are not creating a theoretical manual to be taught, but rather they are creating this system by trial and error.
It takes a lot to figure out how autonomous cars are going to interact with the world, including their design itself. Also, there’s a problem when you are creating a language: Not necessarily everyone will understand. Furthermore, it may have different meanings according to the context or simply to the other driver.This may suggest that the problem can’t be solved by focusing on the car itself, but on the system as a whole.
Truth is, when it comes to AI, people have been trying hard to live up to all expectations, but we are facing a bigger problem at every new one solved.
Read more about it here.
