IIHS: Most Cars’ Pedestrian Safety Systems Fail at Night
Wednesday, August 31st, 2022 AutoOne of the ways automakers are addressing the surging numbers of pedestrian fatalities is with pedestrian automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems that are designed to detect anyone in your car’s path and stop your car before hitting them.
The problem is, three-quarters of these deaths happen at night, and the latest Insurance Institute for Highway Safety test results paint a bleak picture of pedestrian AEB systems’ ability to function in low light.
More than half of the 23 2022-model-year midsize cars, midsize SUVs and small pickups earned only a "basic" or "no credit" score in the IIHS’s nighttime pedestrian AEB test, which tested a car’s ability to avoid hitting both adult-sized pedestrians along the side of the road as well as adult-sized pedestrians crossing in front of a car.
A child-sized mannequin wasn’t part of the test as fewer children die in nighttime pedestrian crashes.
Of that same field of 23 cars tested, 19 of those cars had earned "superior" (highest) or "advanced" (next-to-highest) ratings for AEB performance in the daytime, which the IIHS has been testing since 2019.
