What it’s going to take to protect pedestrians

By Roger C. Lanctot
Founder
StrategiaNow Consulting 

If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning
I’d hammer in the evening all over this land
I’d hammer out danger, I’d hammer out a warning
I’d hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land, ooh

                                                                  “If I Had a Hammer” Pete Seeger, Lee Hays

It’s not uncommon in most industries, including the automotive industry, for solution providers to proclaim that they have the solution to all problems and to fulfill all regulatory mandates.  The latest manifestation of this reality is Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 127, intended to take effect in 2029, calling for automatic emergency braking generally, and specifically for the purpose of protecting pedestrians.

Quoting the press release announcing the new standard: “The new standard requires all cars be able to stop and avoid contact with a vehicle in front of them up to 62 miles per hour and that the systems must detect pedestrians in both daylight and darkness. In addition, the standard requires that the system apply the brakes automatically up to 90 mph when a collision with a lead vehicle is imminent, and up to 45 mph when a pedestrian is detected.”

The requirement to protect pedestrians has raised a high bar and suppliers have been quick to nominate their solutions using a variety of technologies.  Bosch claims to have an AI-based solution trained on its camera-radar combination that is capable of fulfilling the mandate.

Bosch’s claim likely paves the way for a host of competing camera-radar suppliers to collectively raise their hands making the same claim; this, in spite of the reality that camera-based systems are notorious for both false positive and false negative detections — the bane of advanced driving assistance and autonomous driving systems.

Nine companies with thermal technology — including Teledyne Flir, Seek Thermal, Owl.ai, Obsidian, Adasky, Magna, Lynred, Compal and Valeo — assert that their infrared-based technology can fulfill the mandate of detecting pedestrians as well as animals in the roadway.  In spite of those claims, only a single OEM contract is known to have been awarded for the purpose of fulfilling the new requirement.

Not surprisingly, the 5G Automotive Association is getting behind a pedestrian detection application the organization describes as “V2N” for vehicle-to-network.  Cars are expected to detect pedestrians via signals derived from their smartphones presumably running a compatible application.  Companies advocating this approach include Harman, Vodafone, Eye-Net, and Qualcomm.

In all likelihood, the solution that fulfills the FMVSS 127 mandate is likely to be a sensor, such as thermal, that is added to existing sensing portfolios enabling a fusion of multiple sensor sources in the interest of minimizing false positive and false negative detections.  In other words, everyone has a hammer, but, as Peter, Paul, and Mary (and Pete Seeger) sang, it’s going to take a hammer and a bell and a song or, in the automotive world, a camera and a radar and a thermal sensor to protect pedestrians.