This widened view will help detect cyclists and pedestrians better
ACNNewswire has reported that Denso Corporation announced that they have expanded the detection angles of their vision sensor in the Subaru Legacy Outback (North America) and the all new Subaru Crosstrek (Japan) to improve its ability to detect cyclists and pedestrians around the vehicle. Their full article is linked here.
It is no secret that there are many accidents every year caused by cyclists and pedestrians suddenly entering a road from the side. These types of accidents account for 30 percent of all traffic accidents in Japan and 70 percent of them involve children under the age of 12.
Denso takes these issues very seriously and in line with Euro-NCAP requirements, has expanded the detection angle on the vision sensors on their detection cameras to 128 degrees. This makes it possible to detect bicycles crossing a road at low speeds more easily and adheres to the assessment conditions set forth by Euro-NCAP.
This means that the sensor will help prevent accidents at intersections and other parts of the road where motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians could pass the road. However, a wider detection angle also means that the sensor will now detect more objects including non-hazardous objects.
This makes it paramount for the sensor to be able to differentiate between what is a hazard and what is not. As an example, if a cyclist is about to cross a stretch of road and is detected by the sensor but then stops before getting in front of the car, then the car can simply keep moving forward and not cause a collision.
However, should the vehicle ignore that the cyclist has already stopped, and activated the autonomous emergency braking, then the drive becomes unpleasant for the driver and occupants in the car while also potentially causing an accident behind him should a driver not be able to react fast enough and also brake in time.
This is why it is imperative that the AI technology behind these sensors should always be as up to date as possible to minimize any risk of malfunctioning or risky behaviour from the vehicle.
What do you think about this? I think it is a great step in the right direction as you can never be too safe on the road. We here at DSF would also like to remind everyone on the road to be safe regardless of whether you are in a car, on a bike or on foot.
Thank you ACNNewswire for the information and images.
