Soon, expressive car that will 'never hit a person no matter what'

London, Apr 26 (ANI): A US researcher has proposed a robotic car, which would be more user friendly and have its own voice, eyes, body language, and also an avatar.

Nicholas Pennycooke of the MIT Media Lab asserted that the car will be able to communicate their intent to the people around them.

The car could allow people to know it sees them by dilating it's LED "pupils" and swivelling its headlights to follow them as they cross.

Also, it could project a smiley face on its wind screen.

"A car may be perfectly programmed to never hit a person no matter what," New Scientist quoted Pennycooke as saying.

"But how does a pedestrian know that the car sees him?"

In a prototype, Pennycooke demonstrated what such a car might look like.

The car comprises working eye-headlights, micro-speakers designed to send narrowly focused audio messages to pedestrians and human drivers, and a Microsoft Kinect game sensor to identify when people pass in front of the car.

"We see this as a jumping-off point for others - for example Google. When they deploy their autonomous vehicles, they will be considering the implications of many different real-world situations," Pennycooke added. (ANI)