Ford Takes Steps to Protect Pedestrians
CARS.COM — Recent estimates have shown an alarming increase in driving deaths during the first half of 2016 — but it’s not only due to car-on-car collisions. Pedestrian deaths have also been on the rise in recent years, and Ford is one automaker trying to curb this tragic trend with technology.
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Making its debut on the 2017 Ford Fusion, which went on sale this summer, front crash prevention with pedestrian detection uses a combination of radar and camera technology to scan the roadway ahead for collision risks, Ford stated.
“If one is detected, the initial response from the vehicle is to provide a visual and audible warning to the driver and temporarily mute the audio system,” the automaker said. “If the driver does not react to the warning, the technology can automatically apply up to the vehicle’s full braking force to help reduce the severity of, or even eliminate, a frontal collision.”
Using data collected over more than a year and a half-million miles of testing, the system’s algorithm is able to recognize a range of human shapes and sizes. Currently effective only in daylight and at speeds of up to 50 mph (Ford is working to also address nighttime and low-visibility conditions at higher speeds), the system processes info collected from a windshield-mounted camera and classifies different scenarios involving pedestrians, as a radar positioned near the bumper recognizes shape reflections. It then feeds both types of data into algorithm to determine a vehicle response.
Ford said part of the impetus for the technology’s development has been the unfortunate rise of the “petextrians” — walkers who are texting or otherwise distracted by their smartphones. Citing a recent study by federal safety officials, Ford noted that a pedestrian is injured every 8 minutes by a vehicle.
“We were startled to see how oblivious people could be of a 4,000-pound car coming toward them,” Aaron Mills, a Ford safety engineer, said in a statement. “It was a real eye-opener to how distracted people are today.”
Front crash prevention with pedestrian protection is available on the 2017 Fusion’s SE trim and above as part of a $1,190 safety package that also includes adaptive cruise control with stop-and-go capability.
