Pedestrian Safety

When sensing it's about to hit a pedestrian, the car would change the rigidity of its body panels, bumpers and the hood using underlying cables, rods or springs.

You'll finally be able to hear hybrids and electric cars coming.

Semcon's Smiling Car lets pedestrians know it sees them, and that it's safe to cross the street.

In a move to maker pedestrians safer, NHTSA finally intends to release its rules governing the sound from EVs and hybrids in November. They don't go into effect until 2018, though.

A Volvo salesperson recently attempted to demonstrate the XC60 City Safety system to a group of prospective car buyers. What the dealer didn't understand was the safety system, which helps avoid or mitigate collisions, doesn't detect pedestrians.

The Governors Highway Safety Association has released an analysis of preliminary pedestrian fatality traffic data for the first six months of 2014. The study indicates deaths for the year are likely be be about the same as 2013, indicating slow progress with pedestrian safety efforts.

Ben Woolf, a star of American Horror Story: Freak Show, died this week in Los Angeles after being struck by an SUV. His death highlighted efforts by regulators and automakers to ramp up pedestrian safety efforts, though fatalities remain high.

The NHTSA delays the final ruling of the Pedestrian Safety Enhancement Act, meaning it won't come into compliance until 2018. The move has upset the National Federation for the Blind, which has been lobbying for more than a decade for built-in automated alerts for EVs and hybrids moving at low speeds.

Recently elected New York City mayor Bill de Blasio inaugurated his "Vision Zero" plan last year to reduce traffic deaths in The Big Apple to zero by 2024. The numbers for 2014 show the initiative is headed in the right direction: pedestrian deaths dropped to an all-time low of 132, down from 179 in 2013.

A new report ranked the most dangerous cities in America for pedestrians, and things are not looking too bright in the Sunshine State.

For the first time in four years, the number of pedestrians killed on American roads has fallen.

For decades, engineers have worked diligently to make people safer inside their vehicles. But more recently, safety engineers and designers have begun to make people safer outside of vehicles in the event of a collision.

As proof of just how quickly automotive technology can advance, just check out the Volvo V40. Developed with an external airbag aimed at better protecting pedestrians in the event of a collision, this innovative safety device could be phased out soon in place of more advanced active safety technologies like pedestrian detection and auto braking.

Long a pioneer in auto safety (the first company with seat belts, after all), Volvo introduced a new system this year that recognizes both pedestrians and bicyclists ahead of the car to alert and avert collisions. Pedestrian and Cyclist Detection with Full Auto Brake alerts drivers to impending collisions and if the driver does not respond to the alert, the system can stop the car to avert or minimize a major impact.

We're fresh from a balmy rooftop deck in downtown Detroit, where Honda held a meeting this week to discuss and demonstrate a few upcoming advanced safety features. A clear focus of the mini event was the company's new Vehicle-to-Pedestrian (V2P) technology, with a suite of Vehicle-to-Motorcycle (V2M) tech a significant second course.

Dash cam videos out of Russia and Eastern Europe always manage to crank the pucker factor up to surprising levels, but this might be one of the closest calls we've seen yet. As a man was casually crossing the street with a pair of tires in hand, a Lada Niva driver hit the brakes a little too late and a little too hard causing this spectacular incident.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) released a study this week that seems to go against what critics and the media have been reporting for years. According to the report, some people – more specifically, a large majority of the residents in Washington D.C. – actually like red light and speed cameras.

To promote National Traffic Week in Brazil, a group has posted a video of how it is taking pedestrian safety into its own hands. The Hermann Blumenau Rotary Club is being called the "Brazilian Crosswalk Guardians," and this video shows exactly why.

Since even the threat of serious injury or death isn't enough to keep people engrossed in their phones from walking out into traffic, General Motors is developing a new pedestrian safety technology that will sense the phone itself. Using Wi-Fi Direct, a peer-to-peer wireless standard that's like a medium-range Bluetooth, a car would be able to detect a smartphone directly and alert the driver in time to avoid kneecapping the pedestrian.

Above all else, Volvo is known in car circles as being the foremost innovator in technologies intended to improve the safety of its vehicles. While we most often think of the safety of a car's internal occupants, it's important to remember than a two-ton weapon of mass destruction moving at highway speeds is also extremely dangerous to pedestrians outside the car.

Autocar reports that the Land Rover Defender will be around a good bit longer than we thought. The vehicle may stay on dealer lots until at least 2017 thanks in part to a new 2.2-liter diesel engine that can meet more stringent EU6 emissions standards. Originally, a successor to the long-running Defender was expected to show up as soon as 2015. Land Rover also says that there may be a loophole in the emissions legislation that could keep the standard from applying to the globe-crushing SUV until

The addition of pedestrian warning systems on sometimes near-silent vehicles like the electric Nissan Leaf and hybrid Toyota Prius has been the subject of much debate, but with the U.S. House and Senate passing a measure that requires hybrids and plug-in vehicles to emit an audible sound to warn nearby pedestrians, like it or not, these noise-making systems will soon become standard on all electric-drive autos sold in the U.S.

The addition of pedestrian warning systems on sometimes near-silent vehicles like the electric Nissan Leaf and hybrid Toyota Prius has been the subject of much debate, but with the U.S. House and Senate passing a measure that requires hybrids and plug-in vehicles to emit an audible sound to warn nearby pedestrians, like it or not, these noise-making systems will soon become standard on all electric-drive autos sold in the U.S.