JLR Technology Links Car Sensors to Drivers’ Senses

Jaguar Land Rover is developing a safety system that will tap a driver on the shoulder, ring a bell inside the car or make the dashboard glow to help prevent accidents involving bicycles and motorcycles.

The Bike Sense concept technology in the works at JLR’s Advanced Research Center in the U.K. will use colors, sounds and touch inside the car to alert drivers to potential hazards.

Door handles will vibrate in the driver’s hand to prevent doors being opened into the path of bikes and the accelerator pedal will vibrate if moving the car could cause an accident.

Sensors on the car will detect when another road user is approaching and identify it as a bicycle or motorbike. Bike Sense then will alert the driver to the potential hazard before seeing it.

JLR says it isn’t using a generic warning icon or sound system because these take time for the driver’s brain to process. Instead, Bike Sense uses lights and sounds drivers instinctively will associate with the potential danger.

The audio system will make it sound as if a bicycle bell or motorbike horn is coming through the speaker nearest the bike, so the driver immediately senses from where the cyclist is approaching.

If a bicycle or motorbike is approaching the car from behind, Bike Sense will detect if it is overtaking or coming past the vehicle on the inside, and the top of the car seat will extend to tap the driver on the left or right shoulder.

JLR figures the driver instinctively will look over that shoulder to identify the potential hazard.

As the cyclist gets closer to the car, a matrix of LED lights on the window sills, dashboard and windshield pillars will glow amber and then red as the bike approaches. The movement of these across these surfaces will indicate the bike’s direction.

JLR Director of Research and Technology Wolfgang Epple says human beings have developed an instinctive awareness of danger over thousands of years.

“Certain colors, such as red and yellow, will trigger an immediate response, while everyone recognizes the sound of a bicycle bell,” he says in a statement. “Bike Sense takes us beyond the current technologies of hazard indicators and icons in wing mirrors, to optimizing the location of light, sound and touch to enhance this intuition.”

If a group of cyclists, motorcycles or pedestrians is moving around the car on a busy urban street, the system will prioritize the nearest hazards so the driver won’t be overwhelmed with or distracted by light or sound.

JLR says Bike Sense even will be able to identify hazards that the driver cannot see. If a pedestrian or cyclist is obscured by a stationary vehicle while crossing the road, the car’s sensors will detect this and draw the driver’s attention to the hazard using directional light and sound.

If the driver ignores the warnings and presses the accelerator, Bike Sense will make the pedal vibrate or feel stiff, so the driver instinctively knows not to move the car forward until the hazard has been avoided.

Bike Sense also will help prevent the doors of a parked vehicle from being opened into the path of bikes. It will warn all occupants of an approaching cyclist, motorbike or car. If any passenger continues to open the door, the door handle will light up, vibrate and buzz to alert them to the danger.

“By engaging the instincts, Bike Sense has the potential to bridge the gap between the safety and hazard-detection systems in the car and the driver and their passengers,” Epple says.