Mitsubishi Electric has unveiled new ground-illuminating indicators that provide animated illuminations on road surfaces around the vehicle that can help in increasing road safety.

These illuminations change with approaching objects to provide highly intuitive and easy-to-see warnings about the vehicle’s intended movements.

The system is capable of issuing early warnings about vehicle movements even in bad weather.

It is equipped with multiple sensors that can enable it to alter the animation patterns in response to any change around the vehicle including approaching pedestrians.

The indicators also use interior illuminations that will keep the driver alerted about every change in the area around the vehicle.

Mitsubishi’s new system comes with a development and evaluation tool that can be used by car manufacturers to check illumination patterns before installing it in the vehicles.

“The system is capable of issuing early warnings about vehicle movements even in bad weather.”

As the actions of future autonomous vehicles can be difficult to analyse, the usage of illuminated indicators can help to increase automotive safety by developing intuitive communication with other vehicles and pedestrians.

Nearly 60% of pedestrian fatalities on roads occur at night, according to a research conducted by the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis in 2016.

Accordingly, the illuminated indicators are also expected to reduce traffic accidents in the night, due to their higher visibility in the dark.

Last month, Mitsubishi Electric announced the development of its new automotive camera technology that can detect various objects located up to a distance of nearly 100m.

Based on the company’s Maisart-brand artificial intelligence (AI) technology, the solution is expected to be helpful to ensure additional driving safety especially in the upcoming mirrorless cars.