The Drive.ai driverless car project in America is adding a new safety feature, flashing LEDs spelling out warnings to people in the vicinity.
Its bright orange exterior is emblazoned with the words “Self-Driving Vehicle,” and it features billboard-like LED displays that alert nearby motorists and pedestrians with heads-up messages like “going now, don’t cross” and “waiting for you.”
“We want people to know that they’re around a self-driving vehicle, which by its nature does not behave like a human driver,” Bijit Halder, the company’s product development and deployment lead told NBC News MACH. “That’s why we deliberately chose to make our vehicles bright orange; we want them to stand out.”
The company has launched its six month pilot project in the Texan city of Frisco near Dallas. NBC explains that people in a small section the city are able to use a smartphone app hail vehicles and ride free along certain routes. It adds that the vehicles are geo fenced so cannot leave their area.
