Study: Auto Braking Tech Doesn’t Register Reflective Clothing

New research from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety indicates that automatic braking systems on Honda and Mazda cars fail to recognize pedestrians wearing reflective clothing, reports Gersh Kuntzman for Streetsblog USA.

“In the study, researchers outfitted an adult-sized dummy black clothing, one in white clothing, one with a reflective jacket and one with a reflective strips in a configuration similar to those worn by roadway workers (though their safety gear is generally bright orange or yellow rather than black).” In test conditions with various types of lighting, Honda and Mazda vehicles hit crash test dummies wearing reflective strips, and the Honda car hit the dummy wearing a reflective jacket. A Subaru Forester model stopped for most of the dummies in the test.

The study shows that wearing reflective clothing — often the only safety advice given to pedestrians — won’t always protect people walking. According to researcher David Kidd, “People are able to perceive what's out on the roadway and make quick decisions when things get confusing or are uncertain. And these technologies are not as adept at doing those type of things as we are.”