Bright Clothing May Trip Up Crash Prevention Sensors: Study

From driver assist systems to crash prevention, modern vehicles are getting smarter. Well, sort of, anyway. It’s difficult to program a computer to predict and respond appropriately to all sorts of stimuli out on the road, and a recent study found a rather interesting flaw in crash prevention systems. They might get confused by people wearing bright colored clothing.

The study, which was performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), found that crash prevention systems may fail to recognize people dressed in bright colors – an ironic development, considering that lighter hues tend to be more easily recognizable to human drivers.

Specifically, examined the crash prevention systems in a Honda CR-V, a Mazda CX-5, and a Subaru Forester. Researchers conducted multiple trials with an adult-sized dummy dressed in a black sweatshirt and pants, a retroreflective jacket with black sweatpants, black sweatshirt and sweatpants with retroreflective strips attached to the limbs and joints, and a white sweatshirt and pants. Tests were conducted at 25 mph without roadway lighting and 10 lux of illumination in a crosswalk.

The study found that the vehicles, especially the CR-V and CX-5, struggled to recognize the reflective strips, either failing to decelerate sufficiently when it detected the dummy or simply not decelerating at all. The systems had an easier time detecting the dummy dressed in all black, but performed better in low-light situations. When dressed in all white, the systems varied in performance, but failed to adequately slow, except for the Forester, which slowed completely. The Forester and CX-5 each slowed sufficiently when the dummy was dressed in the reflective jacket; the CR-V, however, did not respond at all.

“These results suggest that some automakers need to tweak their pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems,” said IIHS President David Harkey. “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 recognize.”

Ford was not included in the study, but it has struggled with its driver assist features in the past. BlueCruise, the automaker’s advanced driver assist system, was rated poor by the IIHS last year, and the NTHSA recently opened an investigation into the system after two crashes were reported.