How Driverless Cars May Interact with People

As a pedestrian, eye contact is very important to my interaction with drivers. If cars become truly driverless, will we then see psople behind the driver&#x27;s seat reading books? Will pedestrians fall out of the habit of establishing eye contact with drivers? Might there be a way for cars to signal that they&#x27;re &quot;looking at&quot; a pedestrian?<p>(Half joke: What if all driverless cars had to have a red &quot;cyclon eye&quot; in the middle of the front of the car?)

I have always described self driving cars as the ultimate test of the the Trolley problem [1]. Does a self driving car have an obligation to protect the occupant at the risk of pedestrians? vice versa? What if the pedestrian or occupant is a Google executive?<p>EDIT: Apparently MIT has turned this whole line of thinking into an app where they collect a consensus on what a machine should decide: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;moralmachine.mit.edu&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;moralmachine.mit.edu&#x2F;</a><p>1. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Trolley_problem" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Trolley_problem</a>

Cars have body language. Small moves are useful, such as edging towards the side of a lane to indicate a turn. Edging towards a crosswalk where pedestrians are crossing against a signal will probably be necessary in some cities. Google already does some of this. This is probably more useful than adding indicators and signs.