Toyota safety system can feel pedestrians, avoid accidents

Toyota has developed a safety system that automatically stops the car for a moment before a pedestrian collision occurs.

The system (which will start appearing in Toyota cars in the near future) uses collision detection technology that has been integrated into several Toyota car models and vehicles made by many other automakers. make. Existing systems are designed to protect against collisions with large objects, such as stops or walls, but they do not perform well when the subject is human.

Toyota's new system, the first of its kind, uses a millimeter-wavelength radar and a stereo camera to keep track of what's in front of the car.

In a presentation Thursday, July 21, 2011 at the company's Higashi Fuji Technical Center in Japan, reporters were given the opportunity to drive a technology-driven vehicle towards a mannequin image.

Toyota asked the drivers to keep the vehicle at a constant rate of 40km / h and go straight to the pedestrian counter.

First, the sound warning sounds when the system detects the mannequin image and evaluates, a collision can occur. A moment later, when it felt the car had no speed change, the system was ready to stop.

Then, as the car approached the mannequin, the brakes were automatically braked, the seatbelt tightened a bit. With a slight hiss, the car stopped a few meters away from the mannequin.

This is one of several technologies being developed at the center that Toyota hopes will make driving safer.