Using cameras, LIDAR data and machine learning, vehicles will assess pedestrian risk data. For instance, if there’s an elderly person crossing the road, Nvidia might pick up that the pedestrian has a hearing aid and a walking stick. Nvidia would then calculate the trajectory of the pedestrian and assess if they’re in danger. If a certain risk threshold is met, the vehicle would then emit a beamformed audio signal at the direction of the elderly person, to ensure that the elderly person is aware of the risk.

According to the filing, Nvidia’s system would take into account a number of inputs for assessing risk, such as:

pedestrian’s head pose

• body pose
• clothing
• any articles on a person (e.g. wearing headphones?)
• gestures
• weather conditions
• time of day