Vauxhall has revealed a special Vauxhall Grandland which demonstrates how autonomous vehicles can communicate with other vehicles on the road.
Vauxhall is committed to lighting innovation. Their pioneering lightning technologies have been developed in various Vauxhall models, such as the Intelli-LED in the Corsa and Mokka or the Intelli-Lux HD in the new Grandland.
“Headlights clearly play an important part in increasing road safety – but modern lighting systems are capable of so much more. For example, lighting signatures can easily be animated and used for animations. And the illuminated Griffin on the Grandland can be substituted by a display that can both show the illuminated emblem and be used to communicate with other road users and pedestrians. By using existing lighting elements, it makes it easy to add communication features once we introduce autonomous driving features in our cars.”
- Philipp Röckl, Global Lead Lighting at Stellantis
Vauxhall are looking to the future by considering what is a danger from a pedestrian or other situation. They fitted the Grandland with a camera system for detection as well as intention prediction using artificial intelligence. The front and rear indicators of the Grandland are in cyan for a clear signal to other road users. If there is a pedestrian detected then the lighting changes to magenta which then notifies the driver with a display showing a warning signal while the vehicle also begins to decelerate. Once the vehicle has stopped, the light changes to green with the display featuring a green walking figure to show that the car recognised the danger and has now come to a halt.
“We specifically chose colours that are not already associated with other vehicle functions to avoid misunderstandings. For example, red is intuitively understandable, but it is already used for stop lights or the rear lights of cars. Cyan and magenta have been thoroughly evaluated for perception purposes and are currently not present in any traffic situations. Both ensure clear, unambiguous communication with other road users.”
- Julisa Le, Lead Innovation Engineer
This innovative and futuristic move by Vauxhall showcases their commitment to intelligent safety for all road users and building trust in autonomous vehicles.
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