The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that at least one person is injured in a vehicle collision every eight minutes. The problem isn’t necessarily because of distracted drivers, but rather, due to distracted pedestrians.
There is actually a growing number is petextrians out on our roads—people who text while walking. Thanks to their lack of attention to things like oncoming traffic, these petextrians end up getting hurt or worse. All is not lost, though, as technologies such as Ford’s Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection can help save countless lives and prevent fatal injuries.
Using a battery of sensors and around 240 terabytes of data, the system is programmed to recognize various pedestrian movements. The goal is to help reduce or even totally eliminate a crash and the injuries that result from it. It starts out with the vehicle’s windshield-mounted camera, along with radar, monitoring the road ahead. Once it detects a person crossing the street without looking where s/he is going, for instance, it alerts the driver via visual and audible warnings. Should the driver fail to react, the system will automatically apply full braking to help reduce or avoid a crash.
Ford has spent more than 473 days of data logging, scanning roadside objects from, vehicles, and people in various conditions. The test phase was done in places like Europe, the United States and China to try and simulate varying conditions. Around 12 different vehicles were used over a 500,000-mile development process. All this in the hopes of making life safer for everyone on the road.
Apart from Ford’s efforts, many cities around the world are doing all they can to help curb the petextrian problem. South Korean officials, for instance, plan to put up smartphone lanes along sidewalks in Seoul. A pedestrian train track crossing in Augsburg, Germany, meanwhile, warns distracted street users with a strip of LED lights mounted on the ground whenever there is an oncoming train. A more radical approach was taken by a town in Rexburg, Idaho where people texting while walking will be fined $50.
The Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection system will make its debut in the 2017 Ford Fusion midsize sedan. While it may be a novel approach to road safety, nothing beats staying alert—whether behind the wheel or using that crosswalk. To get an idea of how it works, check out the video above. Stay safe, everyone.
