A London company that builds software to help vehicles and machines understand what people nearby are about to do, so roads and work sites can be safer.
Humanising Autonomy is a London-based company that makes software to help vehicles understand people. Its idea is simple to say and hard to build: a car, bus or machine should be able to tell not just where a person is, but what that person is likely to do next. Its software looks at video and works out the intentions of pedestrians and cyclists, for example whether someone is about to step off the kerb. It was first designed for self-driving vehicles, and the company says it also works in ordinary cars with driver-assist features. It is used to improve safety for vulnerable road users, to help vehicle makers meet safety rules and to support the goal known as Vision Zero, which is a world with no deaths on the roads.
The company was founded in 2017 by Maya Pindeus, Leslie Nooteboom and Raunaq Bose, who met while studying at Imperial College London. They were interested in how people use city spaces and how that might change once autonomous vehicles arrive. Their first system, called Blink, let people signal to a vehicle using gestures, and it was nominated for a START Award. Later work moved to reading intent without needing people to signal at all. Ms Pindeus, as chief executive, has described the mission as to 'set the global standard for how autonomous systems interact with people'. A second description says the company aims to improve safety wherever humans and machines meet.
Its home is London, and an article from a chip-design partner describes it as a UK-based AI behaviour company. A magazine report said its software was deployed in the UK, the United States, Japan and Germany. Other sources describe a focus on urban mobility, with possible later uses on construction sites, where software could check that people are wearing safety gear and keeping to safe zones, and around industrial machinery. We could not find a list of street addresses for its offices, so we cannot say more about where in London it sits.
On culture, the team is described as a mix of computer vision specialists and people with backgrounds in behavioural science and psychology, which is unusual for a technology company and fits the idea of studying human behaviour as well as writing code. Ron Pelley has been named as the vice president leading the commercial side. The company's own pages we could reach described its 'mantras' without listing them, so we cannot say what its values are. These are the company's own descriptions, not something we have checked.
A company like this employs several kinds of people: machine learning and computer vision engineers, software developers, behavioural scientists who understand how people move, product and customer success staff who work with carmakers and suppliers, and sales and finance teams. Maths, computing, psychology and engineering are all useful starting points. Because we could not confirm the company's current status after 2023, check its website and recent news before applying.
Website: www.humanisingautonomy.com
PURPOSE helps school and university students explore 62 sectors and over 1,000 entry-level careers in the UK, then connects them directly with employers.
Explore PURPOSE