High visibility clothing with reflective strips, which can help drivers see pedestrians at night, may also reduce the effectiveness of automated crash prevention systems, according to an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study.
The IIHS study, published this month, examined how crash prevention systems in 2023 model year Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-5 and Subaru Forester vehicles fared when encountering different pedestrian clothing amid varied lighting conditions.
Each vehicle tested was equipped with automatic emergency braking, which in normal conditions reduced pedestrian crashes by 27% compared to vehicles without the technology, per IIHS research. However, researchers found reflective strips can hinder the performance of some vehicles’ AEB systems.
“It’s untenable that the clothes that pedestrians, cyclists and roadway workers wear to be safe may make them harder for crash avoidance technology to recognize,” IIHS President David Harkey, said in a statement. “These results suggest that some automakers need to tweak their pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems.”
Researchers tested the AEB systems by dressing an adult-sized dummy four ways, including in black attire, a black outfit with reflective strips, a reflective jacket with black pants, and a white outfit. In the tests, the dummy was moved across a street within a crosswalk to mimic a pedestrian.
Each vehicle was tested at speeds of 25 miles per hour with no lighting in the crosswalk, then with 10 and 20 lux of lighting, which is the federally recommended amount of light for better pedestrian visibility, according to the Federal Highway Administration's Visibility Research Program.
The Mazda CX-5 and the Honda CR-V fared poorly in the tests, hitting the dummy 88% and 84% of the time, respectively, according to IIHS research. The CR-V did not slow when the dummy was wearing the reflective jacket, even with 20 lux of lighting in the crosswalk, the study found. While the CX-5 slowed less when faced with the reflective jacket than it did when the dummy was wearing all black. Both vehicle models did not slow at all when the dummy was wearing reflective strips.
Meanwhile, the Forester stopped and avoided a collision in nearly every single trial. However, it did not fully stop, but reduced speed by 82% when the dummy was wearing the reflective strips, the study found.
In contrast to human drivers, who are readily able to connect the movement of reflective strips to pedestrians, the reflective strips likely “confounded” the sensors of the tested cars, David Kidd, a senior research scientist at IIHS and co-author of the study, said in a statement.
