‘Robot taxi’ with smiling face and ‘ghost driver’ interacts with pedestrians in new experiment

The UK’s first-ever “ghost driver” has taken to the roads of Nottingham in a new experiment.

A driverless car was been fitted visual displays to communicate with people crossing roads to determine how people respond naturally to self-driving vehicles.

The screen shows different images to pedestrians - including a happy face, a giving way face, and a raised eyebrow.

A University of Nottingham study found that, in the absence of someone in the driving seat, pedestrians trust certain visual prompts more than others when deciding whether to cross in front of an autonomous car.