Ford and Virginia Tech develop solutions for self driving cars to communicate with pedestrians
Thursday, September 14, 2017 at 8:57AM 
Study simulates a self-driving vehicle using a seat suit to conceal the human driver; this enables researchers to explore pedestrian reactions to the vehicle’s external lighting signals used to indicate whether it is self-driving, yielding or about to accelerate from a stop.
Ford and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute are testing a Ford-designed lighting method for self-driving vehicles to signal their intent to pedestrians, human drivers and bicyclists in an effort to create a standard visual language everyone can easily process and understand
Developing a way for self-driving vehicles to communicate their intent is essential since cues like hand waves or head nods between human drivers and pedestrians will not necessarily factor in to autonomous driving scenarios.