‘Google’s self-driving car will keep an eye on cyclists’

The documents reveal that the car’s array of sensors will notice a cyclist among other objects and vehicles on the road.It can then watch their arms and hands for gestures indicating that they are about to turn or slow down, and change its own speed in response.Google announced its self-driving cars would be capable of […]

The documents reveal that the car’s array of sensors will notice a cyclist among other objects and vehicles on the road.
It can then watch their arms and hands for gestures indicating that they are about to turn or slow down, and change its own speed in response.
Google announced its self-driving cars would be capable of doing this last year, but the latest patent reveals new details about how it would work.
It describes how the car would use a combination of a camera, Lidar and radar to collect information about objects that surround the car.
It does this by examining the height of objects it may think are cyclists compared with the average height of cyclists it has previously identified.
The car measures the distance between the top of the cyclist’s head and the pavement at various ranges, as well as noting its position on the road.
Google’s algorithms can then decide whether a cyclist is present, and then identify parts of his or her body.
Its computers compare the distance between the cyclist’s hand and head to decide whether a cyclist is turning or stopping, the patent says.
The algorithm will also look at the angle at which the cyclist’s elbow is bending, and the size and shape of the cyclist’s hands, arms and head.
“The computing device may be configured to determine other subsets relating to other aspects of the cyclist, such as one or more subsets indicative of a type of vehicle of the cyclist,” the patent reads.