Proposal of Intention Communication Method in Automotive external HMI

In recent years, autonomous driving technology has rapidly advanced, and it is expected that smooth communication between pedestrians and driverless car in traffic spaces will be realized. eHMI (external Human Machine Interface) that displays texts and signs as a method of intention communication has been actively developed. However, there are cases where the intention or purpose of the presented information is difficult to understand, and differences in language and culture lead to different interpretations. Therefore, a method of intention communication that pedestrians intuitively understand the driver’s intention is required. We have previously developed a twinkling eye interface that superimposes a human shadow on a hemispherical display that mimics the human eyeball. In this interface, focusing on the self-reference effects that objectively grasp the self, in addition to the gaze presentation, the self-shadow is superimposed to clarify the recognition the self. It was demonstrated that the clarified self supports intuitive understanding, such as easier attention and increased interest. Therefore, by incorporating a twinkling eye interface into the driverless car, it is expected to develop an intention communication method that can be intuitively understood by pedestrians. In this study, we proposed an intention communication method that guides pedestrian by intentionally moving driverless car’s gaze and image of pedestrian. The effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed by sensory evaluations.