Ford's jacket lets cyclists communicate with drivers using emoji

[midian182]

In a nutshell: Cycling on roads can be a dangerous activity, with fatalities a sadly common occurrence. To try and improve rider safety, Ford has come up with a concept jacket that displays emoji to help cyclists “better communicate” with drivers.

The jacket, created in partnership with Designworks, is part of Ford’s “share the road” campaign, which aims to improve safety for all road users, be they on four wheels or two. The back of the jacket has an LED mesh panel, which is linked to a wireless remote attached to the handlebars.

The jacket can display three emoji: happy face, angry face, and neutral face. It also shows left and right arrows that can be used to indicate which way the bike is turning. There’s even a hazard symbol that can be displayed.

While arrows and hazard symbols will be useful for cyclists, you might wonder about the emoji. Dr. Neil Cohn, an expert in the area of emoji, said: “Emojis have become a fundamental part of how we use language. Whether used to convey facial expressions, humor, or sarcasm, they have become integral to our ability to express ourselves and quickly. This jacket created in partnership with Ford Share the Road allows riders to express their feelings and creates an important emotional link between them and other road users.”

Ford Europe added that the jacket was designed “to show how tensions could be eased by enabling riders to more easily and more clearly show drivers what their intentions are—and how they are feeling.”

The jacket is just a proof-of-concept, so you might never see one on the roads. But with cyclist deaths on the increase in the US and 2,000 killed every year in Europe, anything that might help reduce these fatalities would be welcome.

In other emoji news, we recently heard that the icons could start appearing on license plates in the US.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/83897-ford-jacket-cyclists-communicate-drivers-using-emoji.html

 

[cliffordcooley]

I'm willing to bet the emoji list is censored. If not it should be.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Is this an April Fool's joke? Be looking for people wearing clothes to fool self-wrecking cars as well. They are already easily doing it with stickers.

 

[TheBigT42]

There is already a free method of communicating.
Cycling hand signals.

https://blog.mapmyrun.com/10-cycling-hand-signals-need-know/

I guess a lot of drivers and cyclists are too ignorant to know/use them.

 

[3volv3d]

But it is all about poor planning from goverments and councils. Every problem on the planet has one common denominator and thats humans.
And every problem is due to the amount of them.
Resources, housing, jobs, drugs, etc.
Instead of working out the population of an area like the UK can safely and economically have, while future proofing as best we can, our governments strive to have as many people as possible in the smallest amount of available space, because they are lazy and greedy, and just want more taxes.
All housing by law should be able to home 4 cars in theory, a family of 4 and no more, 2 adults 2 children, and enough of a garden area.
Flats and houses without drives, parking, or even lacking of a footpath (old school cottages) should all be knocked down.
Its these areas where kids run out from behind cars, where pedestrians walk in front of vehicles, cars and bikes, causing accidents. Where there is not enough room to share the road.
In fact cars really should be removed because we should have a public transport infrastructure that works, but it doesnt due to all the above issues.
Towns and cities are built with roads that could handle 1940's traffic. Well welcome to the 21st century, and the fail that it is.
Etch a Sketch this awful world, and start again, and make enough lanes safe for all users.