This position paper introduces the concept of artificial "co-drivers" as an enabling technology for future intelligent transportation systems. In Sections I and II, the design principles of co-drivers are introduced and framed within general human-robot interactions. Several contributing theories and technologies are reviewed, specifically those relating to relevant cognitive architectures, human-like sensory-motor strategies, and the emulation theory of cognition. In Sections III and IV, we present the co-driver developed for the EU project interactIVe as an example instantiation of this notion, demonstrating how it conforms to the given guidelines. We also present substantive experimental results and clarify the limitations and performance of the current implementation. In Sections IV and V, we analyze the impact of the co-driver technology. In particular, we identify a range of application fields, showing how it constitutes a universal enabling technology for both smart vehicles and cooperative systems, and naturally sets out a program for future research.

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This paper aims at stimulating the discussion on the future of Intelligent Vehicles. It is a position paper, indicating converging technologies that, in our opinion, will have to be used in future Intelligent Vehicles. We present a vision according to which Intelligent Vehicles will evolve into Human-peer Robots, here called Co-Drivers. Co-Drivers will be able to "understand" human drivers and to form symbiotic systems with them. The general architecture of Co-Drivers, the building blocks and the technologies that are needed to bring them to life are discussed, pointing out which parts have been already researched and which gaps still remain. We clarify what "understanding driver" actually means and how a joint system can be obtained. The paper will identify research needs and paths, and hopefully trigger interest. I. INTRODUCTION. THE LOST "HORSE"? ANKIND used animals, and especially horses, as transportation systems for thousand years. Last century they were eventually replaced by motor vehicles because of range, speed, capacity and costs. However, something was lost: the intelligence of the animals was traded with power. In a recent book [1], Norman recalls the interaction between a rider and a horse as one example of how future intelligent things should work: Think of skilled horseback riders. The rider "reads" the horse, just as the horse can read its rider. (…). This interaction (…) is of special interest because it is an example of two sentient systems, horse and rider, both intelligent, both interpreting the world and communicating their interpretations to each other. According to Norman, here the key point is the peer-topeer cooperation of two "sentient" systems. In this example, a man and an animal, but the animal stands for a future intelligent artificial system. Norman was not the only one to point out such a smart collaboration. The H-metaphor (i.e., rider-horse metaphor) was also proposed by Flemish, originally in the aerospace Manuscript received January 15, 2012. This work was supported in part by the European Commission under Grants FP6 507075 (PReVENT), FP7 216355 (SAFERIDER), FP7 246587 (interactIVe).