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posted by chromas on Wednesday October 09 2019, @11:41PM   Printer-friendly
from the double-clutch-your-pearls dept.

Not only is the problem of cars killing pedestrians not going away, but the annual death toll over the last decade has actually increased by 35%. The proliferation of cars with automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems that detect pedestrians is therefore a good thing, right?

According to a study by the American Automobile Association, maybe we shouldn't count on AEB. The association has just tested the pedestrian-detection behavior of four popular mid-sized model-year 2019 sedans—a Chevrolet Malibu, Honda Accord, Tesla Model 3, and Toyota Camry—in a variety of different scenarios. Unfortunately, the results are not promising, particularly when it comes to anything but the least challenging scenarios.

[...] The testing was all carried out on dry asphalt in a testing area marked out as a four-lane highway with a solid white line dividing the two middle lanes. For one other test, one of the speedway's surface streets was appropriated: a right turn with a 57-foot (17.3m)-radius curve. Different tests involved adult or child pedestrian targets moving at 3.1mph (5km/h), from left to right across the path of the test vehicle. For each test, the longitudinal distance and the time-to-collision was recorded when each vehicle gave a visual alert that a collision was imminent, as well as once the vehicle began to automatically brake. Impact speed or separation distance were recorded, depending upon the outcome of the test.

Unfortunately, the results of the tests were very much a mixed bag.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Snotnose on Thursday October 10 2019, @12:04AM (4 children)

    by Snotnose (1623) on Thursday October 10 2019, @12:04AM (#904958)

    Look both ways before crossing the street. Not only will that protect you from the evil, noisy ICE cars, but it will also protect you from those eco-friendly, quiet electric cars.

    Damn, my bad. That implies that not only do you need to left your head from your phone, but you take a little bit of responsibility for your own safety. That kind of groupthink doesn't work in this day and age.

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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday October 10 2019, @02:07AM

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 10 2019, @02:07AM (#905004) Journal

    That implies that not only do you need to left your head from your phone

    Will no help even a bit for cars coming from the right of my phone.
    I'd need to right my head too, but lefting and righting my head in the same time is unpossible. (grin)

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by RS3 on Thursday October 10 2019, @04:59AM

    by RS3 (6367) on Thursday October 10 2019, @04:59AM (#905060)

    Those pedestrians just need an app that lets them know they're about to flail.

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday October 10 2019, @03:31PM

    by Freeman (732) on Thursday October 10 2019, @03:31PM (#905238) Journal

    It's definitely the pedestrian's fault, if they're stepping right in front of an oncoming vehicle. Beyond that, the Pedestrian has the right of way. Autonomous vehicles aren't ready for prime time, if they can't detect a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Or any other place the pedestrian might be crossing. Like a busy highway. Sure, it's dumb, but drivers will try to not hit the idiot in the middle of the road. Drivers have direct incentive to not hit a pedestrian. An algorithm has no such compunctions. It will just as gladly send you veering off over a cliff or plow through a line of school children. "Autopilot" self-driving cars rely on algorithms (math), data, and faulty human programmers. It's great that Teslas can drive themselves, even when the passenger falls asleep. Instead of having them plow into oncoming traffic, veering off into your lane, or ending your nap time by plowing you into a tree. That's really cool and a great feature, but fully autonomous driving is Rocket Science hard. Except the failure mode of an autonomous car is more likely to cause an impact on a crosswalk full of school children, than a SpaceX rocket would.

    "If in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundation of knowledge in mathematics."
    -Roger Bacon

    https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Mathematics_(Civ4) [fandom.com]

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 12 2019, @06:42AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 12 2019, @06:42AM (#906249)

    "Not only is the problem of cars killing pedestrians not going away, but the annual death toll over the last decade has actually increased by 35%."

    "but it will also protect you from those eco-friendly, quiet electric cars."

    It would be interesting to know if cars are getting quieter and if so does that contributes to this increased pedestrian death toll. Are quieter cars, ie: Electric vehicles, more likely to contribute to these pedestrian deaths. If so if we exclude quieter vehicles from the statistics is the adjusted death toll similar to what they were prior to the increase in the amount of quieter vehicles?