Autonomous Vehicle Confidence Indication via Color-Coded Lighting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Autonomous vehicles lack effective means to communicate their confidence levels in their decision-making processes to the surrounding environment, which can lead to misunderstandings and potential interference or collisions with other vehicles and pedestrians.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a computer-implemented method and system that determines an autonomous vehicle's confidence level based on sensor data and map information, and outputs this confidence level as visual or auditory indications to the surrounding environment, using lighting effects or audio signals to convey low, moderate, or high confidence levels.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If autonomous vehicles operate without communicating confidence levels, then the vehicle system remains simple and unobtrusive, but safety is reduced and misunderstandings with other road users may occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses color-coded lighting indicators (e.g., green for high confidence, yellow for moderate confidence, red for low confidence) to communicate the autonomous vehicle's confidence level in its decisions to surrounding road users. This visual communication system enhances safety by making the vehicle's decision-making state observable without requiring complex communication protocols or infrastructure.
2Loss of information
If the autonomous vehicle communicates detailed internal decision-making processes, then contextual information is provided to other road users, but information overload may occur and attention may be diverted from safe operation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the most critical information—the confidence level of the autonomous vehicle's decision-making— and communicates it through simple visual indicators. This selective information extraction provides sufficient contextual awareness to other road users without overwhelming them with excessive details about the vehicle's internal processing, thereby avoiding information overload while maintaining safety.
3Loss of information
If visual or auditory indicators are added to the autonomous vehicle, then confidence level communication is enabled, but the vehicle design becomes more complex and energy consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs simple, low-energy visual indicators such as LED lights that can be easily integrated into the vehicle's existing lighting system. These indicators consume minimal energy compared to complex auditory systems or sophisticated display mechanisms, and they provide reliable confidence level communication without significantly increasing the vehicle's overall energy consumption or design complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for communicating autonomous vehicle confidence levels are provided. In one example embodiment, a computer implemented method includes obtaining, by a computing system including one or more computing devices onboard an autonomous vehicle, data associated with the autonomous vehicle. The method includes determining, by the computing system, a vehicle confidence level associated with one or more system actions of the autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the data associated with the autonomous vehicle. The method includes determining, by the computing system, an external vehicle indication that is indicative of the vehicle confidence level. The method includes outputting, by the computing system via an output device onboard the autonomous vehicle, the external vehicle indication that is indicative of the vehicle confidence level. The external vehicle indication is outputted to at least a portion of a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle.