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Jaguar Put Virtual Eyes On This Car To Make It Safer But We Think It Just Looks Depressed

Jaguar Put Virtual Eyes On This Car To Make It Safer But We Think It Just Looks Depressed

You ever watch Pixar’s Cars and think “Wow, this is great. I wish cars were alive and had actual eyes that followed me across the street like some kind of machine organism”?

Well, some guys at the R&D team at Jaguar certainly thought this was a good idea which explains the glazed over googly eyes they put on their newest self-driving Land Rover concept. According to Business Insider, about 63% of cyclists and pedestrians feel less safe with autonomous cars on the road. The possible solution to this accountability gap are giant, fake electronic eyes on the front of the car that make eye contact with you when you cross the street.

The electronic eyes are part of a study by Jaguar to learn how visual cues will help assuage pedestrians’ fears of automated vehicles, but it may just creep out patrons more than anything.

“We want to know if it is beneficial to provide humans with information about a vehicle’s intentions or whether simply letting a pedestrian know it has been recognized is enough to improve confidence,” said project manager Pete Bennet.

Whether or not the eyes will make it onto full production cars is unclear, but if so let’s hope Jaguar makes them look a little less depressed next time. This car looks like he’s going through a lot right now.