A new shocking study revealed that high-visibility clothing might make it harder for some modern technology cars to spot them, especially the ones with automatic brakes.
According to Sky News, automatic emergency braking (AEB) systems in modern cars automatically apply the brakes after detecting a potential collision, but a study by the US-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) revealed an alarming “blind spot” of these systems.
The study revealed that the modern cars with automatic brake systems cannot detect reflective items.
The researchers tested three cars, the Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-5, and Subaru Forester, for the study.
IIHS president David Harkey said the results of the trials suggested that car manufacturers "need to tweak their pedestrian automatic emergency braking systems."
He said, "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 recognise. This is a worrisome blind spot.”
Moreover, trial researchers took a crash test of all three cars that travelled at the speed of 25 mph with a dummy wearing a high-visibility jacket. Mazda hit the dummy wearing reflective strips, while Honda not only hit the mannequin but also failed to slow down.
Meanwhile, Subaru slowed down in all trials except when the dummy wore reflective strips in very low light.
