High-visibility clothing is meant to keep pedestrians and cyclists safe, but new research suggests it could actually make them harder for some modern car braking systems to detect.
Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) is now standard in new cars, designed to step in and stop the vehicle if the driver doesn’t react to an imminent collision. But a study by the US-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that these systems may struggle to recognise reflective clothing.
In tests with a crash test dummy and three cars—a Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-5, and Subaru Forester—two of the vehicles failed to stop when the dummy was wearing reflective strips. The Honda didn’t even slow down when the dummy had on a high-vis jacket. Only the Subaru consistently detected the dummy, except in very low light with reflective strips.
David Harkey, president of IIHS, called the findings a “worrisome blind spot” and urged manufacturers to improve their pedestrian detection tech. "It's untenable that the clothes that pedestrians, cyclists and roadway workers wear to be safe may make them harder for crash avoidance technology to recognise," he said.
Mazda responded by saying road safety is a priority and that they’re already working on improvements, especially for nighttime scenarios. Honda and Subaru have yet to comment.
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