One pedestrian is injured in a motor vehicle crash every eight minutes, a number that’s been on the rise in recent years. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has equated this increase in injuries to a global influx of “petextrians” – pedestrians who simultaneously walk and text. This, combined with the rise of distracted driving due to smartphones, created a massive new safety problem for drivers and pedestrians alike.
To combat this prevalent issue, Ford created Pre-Collision Assist with Pedestrian Detection for the 2017 Ford Fusion. The technology utilizes radar and camera technology to scan the roadway ahead of the vehicle for collision risks. If a risk is detected, the vehicle will provide a visual and audio warning to the driver, along with muting the driver’s audio system. If there is no reaction from the driver to any of these warnings, the technology will apply the vehicle’s full breaking power to reduce the severity of, and potentially eliminate, a frontal collision.
“We were startled to see how oblivious people could be of a 4,000-pound car coming toward them,” said Aaron Mills, a Ford safety engineer. “It was a real eye-opener to how distracted people are today.” After becoming aware of this issue, Aaron and his team helped gather a wide variety of test data to create Pre-Collision Assist and to help the vehicle recognize a wide variety of human sizes and shapes.
Ford's Pre-Collision Assist helps predict distracted ‘petextrian” movement
(picture from yahoo.com)
Source: Ford.com
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