Ford has announced it is introducing new technology that can detect pedestrians at night and then automatically brake if a driver doesn’t heed initial audible and visual warnings. The system will be introduced in the next-generation Ford Fiesta in Europe later this year. It will make its North American debut in the 2018 Ford F-150 and 2018 Ford Mustang.
The nighttime pedestrian-detection system uses radar in the vehicle’s bumper and a camera mounted in the windshield that takes 30 snapshots every second. The system has a database of “pedestrian shapes” that helps it to distinguish jaywalkers from other objects, such as trees and street signs. A live video feed picks out pedestrians “even in low-light conditions,” the company said. In developing the system, Ford said an engineering team sent life-size dummies into the path of oncoming vehicles on closed tracks at night. The team also tested the system on public roads in busy cities such as Paris and Amsterdam.
Currently, automated emergency braking (AEB) is not standard on most vehicles, let alone with nighttime pedestrian detection, and automakers’ systems are somewhat varied in the way they function. Honda began developing a night-vision system in 2004 that used two infrared cameras under a car’s headlights to detect heat-emitting objects?such as people?and then would give audible and visual warnings, Automotive News reported at the time. Cadillac had a similar system in...