There is a real psychological effect to it. I think Mercedes was first to test it years ago. not with eyes but with a long LED light strip in the upper area of the front window. The goal was to communicate the “attention” of the vehicle to a pedestrian waiting to cross the street in a similar way that real drivers catch eye contact with pedestrians. This reassures the pedestrian that it is safe to cross the street - hey the guy sees me, I can safely go.

Without this feedback it has been found that people are overly cautious, not trusting the autonomous vehicles and it simply causes stress.

This is a real problem discovered years ago that has a novel funny solution instead of LED strip :)