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Drivers Tend To Kill Pedestrians At Night. Thermal Imaging May Help. (www.forbes.com)
submitted 2 years ago by [M, B] to c/technology@lemmy.world
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Drivers Tend To Kill Pedestrians At Night. Thermal Imaging May Help.::Pedestrian automatic emergency braking (AEB), which may become mandatory on U.S. cars in the future, tends to not perform well in the dark.

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[–] 10 points 2 years ago (17 children)

My parents gotba relatively new Merc and I'd to turn that auto braking off. Its far too sensitive and nearly had me rear ended driving around a bend. My guess is its picking up the retroreflective spots on the markings as there usually isn't a car on that bend but the Merc is beeping at me like I'm about to be in a collision

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  • [–] -1 points 2 years ago* (13 children)

    Something must be wrong then.

    Or its just a (now) standard emergency braking feature (not meant as a substitute, but to lessen crash outcomes), not radar cruise control. If it is tho, look in the settings, maybe you can adjust something there. But radar breaking on all new-ish cars is smooth. But it does tend to sightly mimic the driving (accelerating and braking) style of the car in front, especially in cities as it tries to be polite & not make others impatient.

    Also afaik radar braking/cruise control is something to turn on, can't be on by default.

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  • [+] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Yeah, iirc it became or about to become a requirement in EU. But I was not aware that it has false positives like that, that just makes ppl not use them.

    However these are indeed two different things - one is emergency braking (on by default, breaking only, radar, camera of radio-wave sensors), the other one just for comfort that you can keep both pedals alone and it's an extension of crouse control (radar based, accelerates as well, for regular situations). I thought we were talking about the second system being harsh.

    I get why the first one would be tho, it's designed to function only when the driver already falls to, but it's useless or dangerous of it's not working properly.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Auto-brake and auto-cruise likely rely on the same radar system. Mine seems to, as they both over-react to the same things. Really they're just different applications of the same data.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Oh, yeah, they both really on radar in my case too, but you can also get my model w/o radar (and it still has that emergency braking feature).

    I'm just baffled how come I never heard of it having so much issues, even irl I never heard about it being like that. The closest my system got to a "false" positive was on a narrow road (one car max) where a car coming towards me stopped on a slightly wider spot and went a bit offroad to allow me to pass by. As I accelerated directly towards the other car (to later turn to go a bit off-road only when already very close to it) my car beeped but didn't brake.

    Overall the system activates for me probably less than one time per year, and I have it set on the most sensitive option (all of such safety features). Previously it was in a situation where a car coming from a side road stopped (rapidly) only when already half on my side of the road, so that was valid, tho I saw it way before that & nothing happened.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    They didn't get the car brand new but it wasn't very old. Perhaps the previous owner turned on the setting

    I have been in the settings and adjusted it but in the end it was just easier to turn the function off

    Its probably awesome on the Autobahns but its a danger on windytight roads that I drive on. Probably 3 or 4 times it braked on me when there was no reason to do so. There's one bit near my approaching a roundabout and it beeps like hell at me to slow down at least 50% of the time. Fortunately I'm back in my own car now as I don't need the automatic (I injured my left leg)

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yeah, you should take that to a dealer and have the system re-calibrated. It's not supposed to act like that. If I had to guess, the previous owner got into a fender bender and had someone do the repair work on the cheap. Either that, or there's something in the front grill area blocking the radar setup intermittently.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    Every automated car I've driven behaves like this. I don't buy it's a calibration issue (there's nothing to calibrate from what I've read on wiring diagrams, as that's not how auto manufacturers roll - they build components for things like this to be replaced).

    For example, I haven't heard of headlight aiming in forever, though it's something that used to be done with a relatively simple tool. And it's way simpler to do than calibrate a complex radar system for a car.

    This automation simply isn't quite ready for the real world, and I'd bet manufacturers are collecting data from many of these cars (so many have a connection back to the manufacturer via cell).

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    I'm only trained to calibrate the camera systems that tell you when you've drifted out of the lane, but the tool I use is capable of calibrating radar systems if you buy the more expensive accessory package. I'm certain because I have to scroll past the instructions for radar when pulling up instructions/parameters for Lane watch.

    Also, for what it's worth the sensors CAN be replaced, but they still have to go through an initial calibration/programming once installed into the car.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    Oh, I don't have a comparative experience at all. But also once you touch the brakes all cruise control should turn off anyway so I'm not sure if we are talking about the same thing.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    No, I'm not talking about having cruise control on in any of my comments. Just driving with the pedals myself

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Oh, yeah, I see that now - I'm just in awe that issues like that are a thing (so I assumed the other system).

    But I'm intrigued what makes for such difference (cars/tech, environments, legislation? - like adaptive lights were a legislation issue in US).

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago*

    They are a great example of how far away we are from automation in many spaces.

    The auto-cruise control barely works right for me, the lane assist complains constantly because I don't hang on the steering wheel like an ape as most people do. And don't get me started about the auto-brake system that tries to stop when the lane next to me slows down, on an interstate.

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