Smart Roads Could Protect Us From Self-Driving Car Crashes

For our new series Provocation, Co.Design posed that question to some of our favorite design firms. So far, we've heard about flying inflatable drones that act like airbags for pedestrians, a steering wheel that gives passengers control over their car's morality, and an entire connected street grid. The San Francisco-based firm Astro Studios responded to our prompt by creating a smart infrastructure system with warning lights, street illumination, and a fully reactive road that–in the worst-case scenario–will rise up and become a buffer between car and person. The system, created by Astro creative directors Norio Fujikawa and Alejandro Chavetta, is based on the duo's conviction that self-driving cars will be fully dedicated to protecting their passengers. That means it's up to the city's infrastructure to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe.