Are you angry that another motorist has cut you off? One day, you might not be flipping them a one-finger salute and hammering the horn. Instead, you might send the other driver an emoji.
A tech startup in Silicon Valley is working on technology for cars that will send emojis to other motorists, rather than using a horn to share a message.
According to the Financial Times, Drive.ai is developing autonomous technology that will help cars communicate to each other.
Drive.ai’s technology will use displays on the car, potentially on the roof our on windows, to share messages with other vehicles. In addition to showing emojis, the platform would also be able to display pictures and text.
The company’s co-founder tells the Financial Times that this new technology is designed to help drivers “emote intention.”
There’s still lots of research and development that needs to go into this. Also, a whole bunch of manufacturers are going to have to sign off on a standard for vehicle-to-vehicle communications so they can all talk together nicely, even if the emoticons that will be flashed to others won’t be friendly.