At night only testing at super low speed. It's a good way to get started, but definitely not an autonomous taxi that title implies.
Source: actual ADV engineer
(aside from folks crossing the street in non-reflective dark clothing)
I think the worst time to drive - as a human - is right when the sun is coming up or going down, or under tree cover when you go into and out of shadow.
Fatal accidents do indeed spike around these times, although they seem to be worse in the evenings than mornings, and more pronounced in southern states than northern ones.
For car-car collisions, not really. Yes, getting into a head-on 30-30 MPH collision is pretty bad, but you're more than likely going to walk away from it, especially if you're in the back seat.
https://one.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/pub/hs809012.ht...
Features to prevent/alert to collisions, sure, but I'd assume this is about hitting someone when going X speed; surely that's pretty similar now and then.
Not taking a position on the study. Just felt like sharing.
One key trick other than the pop-up headlamps going away, was a gap between the bodywork and harder internal surfaces. As I understand it that goes something like this:
Think about a large steel panel such as a car bonnet (hood?), obviously it's no comfort blanket, smacking into that isn't a good idea, but it will bend and absorb lots of energy during impact. Now, think about an engine block, that's not going to bend at all. In a desire to give a more stream-lined look, older cars would mount that large panel almost touching the engine block and other large stiff elements, because why not. Well, dead pedestrians is why not. If you add a gap that gap absorbs lots of energy that otherwise is going to cause injuries to a pedestrian. I can't prove it, but I credit that for the difference between walking away with a damaged jacket and spending the rest of my working day in A&E being told I'm not dying so can't cut to the front of the queue, but I'm also not OK and so mustn't leave yet.
You're exactly correct that all that empty plastic in the top front of modern cars and crossovers is there to protect pedestrians (hood designs have been revised to facilitate this as well).
Recent trends in vehicle purchases also increase pedestrian harm, as the popularity of sedans has waned in favor of SUVs and trucks. These days 72% of vehicle sales are for SUVs and trucks[2], and the trend is expected to continue into the future.
[1] https://www.codot.gov/safety/traffic-safety-pulse/2019/march...
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/business/suv-sales-best-s...
Hitting one's head on the windshield is/was the source of a lot of the pedestrian injury and fatalities and modern safety requirements try and prevent this outcome.
Would you rather get hit by a'21 CRV or a '95 LeBaron? CRV seems like the obvious choice.
Of course there's a lot more big trucks to hit you on the roads in 2021 but improvements in pretty much every smaller class of vehicle do a lot to balance that out.
Looking at the data I don't see any clear trend that pedestrians are at more risk today than in the past.
https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/road-users/pedestr...
On the other hand the height and shape of the average car has changed to make them less pedestrian friendly.... but any one of these vehicles also sold in Europe includes a bunch of measures to lessen damage to pedestrians.
So I feel very comfortable saying a study from the 90s is not relevant because too much has changed on both sides of the equation.
- How often is an accident while walking along the roadway getting sideswiped, instead of just a full-on crash
- The equivalent of being run over by a car doesn't happen when falling 30 feet. I wonder how much this accounts for getting hurt as a pedestrian.
This is just what I thought of, it is also a threat to cars, but that would be offset more by the velocity of the car that got hit than it would be by the velocity of a pedestrian. (For example, a car that is going 25mph and gets rear-ended by a car going 30mph)
Also there is often hitting the brakes before collision. So it will be slower sometimes.
If a driverless car just stops, I don't feel comfortable walking in front of it if there's no indication that it sees me.
How could that be solved?
The overwhelming majority of people who fall from 30ft do not attempt to decelerate in the last second or so.
People who text their way into stopped traffic notwithstanding, 30mph is the kind of collision speed you see on roads where traffic moves low highway speeds. Edge cases notwithstanding (i.e. someone barreling through a red or whatever) collisions on roads where traffic moves 30-40 typically happen at speeds 10-20mph below that because people generally brake but too late to prevent a crash.
Speed being "slow" or "fast" here is unrelated.
https://www.littlerock.gov/media/2484/the-relation-between-s...