In the Car vs. Pedestrian Battle, Who Will Win?
The latest technology in the effort to protect pedestrians from cars comes from IEE, an electronic sensor company in Luxembourg.
This is part of a voluntary agreement between the European Union and European automakers to try and reduce the injuries and fatalities that occur when cars and pedestrians meet in an unintended manner. The system from IEE incorporates sensors that are supposed to predict these "meetings" and then use actuators to raise the hood prior to pedestrian impact. Apparently, it's not the hood that causes severe damage to pedestrians, but the impact between a pedestrian's noggin and the hard engine parts underneath the hood. The idea behind this system is to turn the hood into a sort of "human-friendly cumple zone."
This is similar in concept to the motorcycle airbag that has been bandied about for years (Honda will be putting one on the 2006 Gold Wing). In both cases the biggest challenge is accurately predicting how a human body will be moving for any given accident situation. I'll be interested to see how the Gold Wing airbag works in practice (outside of the laboratory), and I'll be even more intrigued by the success rate the Europeans achieve in designing people-friendly cars. One likely result will be vehicle designs that use a higher, flatter front end to enhance the effectiveness of these systems.
Let's hope we don't end up with a bunch of blunt-faced Ferraris.
- Posted by
- Karl Brauer December 27, 2005, 2:35 PM
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- Safety Systems
Apparently there's a voluntary ban on bull bars in the EU to enhance pedestrian safety (don't ask me what a voluntary ban is, lol). Note that the new FJ Cruiser doesn't have them nor do recent Land Rovers.
Bull bars are still somewhat popular here in the US where we don't have pedestrians but we do have deer on the highway.
I dunno, this makes sense for a crowded city car, but it's not often I come across pedestrians in the 'burbs.
I guess I'd feel differently if I were looking at a giant bull bar!
If the hood is made so lightly as to crumple when striking a pedestrian at urban speeds, it will probably also crumple when you lean on it, put groceries on it to free a hand to open the car, a branch falls on it, etc. And then need to be replaced for $1000+.
I have gotten by this long without a crumply hood by not hitting pedestrians. Keep this piece of junk off my car.
Given what the European urban landscape looks like, this is pretty important over there.
The styling effects are interesting... Volkswagen and Peugeot/Citroen are using long overhangs (boo). Honda's making their hoods even shorter, which is totally different but works too. Mitsubishi's future Lancer and the Mazda MX-5 have taller hoods and a sharklike front rake. Somehow those are all influenced by pedestrian impact research.
BMW's one of the worst right now, and they're very numerous in Europe so they'll probably be forced to change sooner or later. That could be the end of inline-6's!