Photo: Missouri Department of Transportation/Flickr
Arlington, VA — High-visibility, reflective clothing may present a “blind spot” for some vehicles’ pedestrian-sensing automatic emergency braking technology, results of a recent study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety show.
Researchers examined AEB performance on three 2023 vehicle models. The team dressed a test dummy in various clothing to determine how the systems – designed to use sensor technology to automatically engage the brakes to prevent collisions – responded when it crossed a track.
The vehicles traveled at 25 mph under scenarios with no roadway lighting, as well as with 10 and 20 lux of illumination, respectively, in the crosswalk. IIHS says 20 lux is the federally recommended level for lighting.
The team found that two of the vehicles struck the dummy on most of the test runs, with neither vehicle slowing when the dummy wore reflective strips on its limbs and joints. The third vehicle avoided contact during all but one test run.
The two models that repeatedly struck the dummy “slowed substantially” while using their high beams with the dummy dressed in black and no roadway lighting. However, with the low beams on in the same conditions, one model didn’t slow down and the second reduced its speed by less than a third.
“These results suggest that some automakers need to tweak their pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems,” IIHS President David Harkey said in a press release. “It’s untenable that the clothes that pedestrians, cyclists and roadway workers wear to be safe may make them harder for crash avoidance technology to recognize.”
Added David Kidd, study author and IIHS senior research scientist: “The placement and motion of reflective strips on the joints and limbs of pants and jackets allow drivers to quickly recognize the pattern of movement as a person. Unfortunately, the moving strips didn’t have the same effect for the pedestrian AEB systems we tested and probably confounded their sensors.”
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Original article published by Safety+Health an NSC publication