Get ready to share the road with smarter self-driving cars

USC researchers are exploring how autonomous vehicles can predict other drivers’ reactions and make safer decisions.

The encounter illustrates a problem Wang is now working to solve: A self-driving car’s next move can change what other drivers do.

"Performativity means that a decision will change and have an impact on the environment," Wang says.

The challenge is that autonomous vehicles learn from data collected under certain driving conditions.

For autonomous vehicles, that means going beyond identifying nearby cars or obstacles to anticipating how they might move and respond to the vehicle’s decisions.