Manufacturers are developing self-driving cars that make “eye contact” with pedestrians to reassure them that they’ve been “seen.”

Jaguar Land Rover has fitted virtual* “eyes” to self-driving car pods to see how far people will trust them to stop at zebra crossings.

The large, cartoon-like eyes, complete with digital eyelids and pupils, sit roughly where headlights might be, making the cars resemble the children’s TV character Brum, the little yellow car who took himself off on adventures.

The eyes are programmed to interact with people by “looking” at pedestrians spotted by the car’s radar sensors and cameras. The pupils “follow” walkers as they cross and will also look at drivers coming out of side roads, or approaching them.

The aim of the trials is to replicate* human interactions and see what features will be needed in the future to ensure we trust driverless cars not to mow us down.

Jaguar Land Rover has enlisted the help of cognitive psychologists* to better understand “human trust in self-driving vehicles.”

It comes after research showed 63 percent of British pedestrians and cyclists were worried about how safe it will be to share the road with a self-driving vehicle.(SD-Agencies)