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I would not care to be struck by any vehicle, thank you, but IIRC, vehicles with higher front ends may be more dangerous to pedestrians: studies by the Insuran

I would not care to be struck by any vehicle, thank you, but IIRC, vehicles with higher front ends may be more dangerous to pedestrians: studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also blamed SUVs for the higher death rate, concluding that "pedestrians are two to three times more likely to suffer a fatality when struck by an SUV or pickup than … by a passenger car." https://www.aarp.org/auto/driver-safety/info-2018/suv-pedestrian-dangers.html https://www.aarp.org/auto/driver-safety/info-2018/suv-pedest... I’d like to see the study, the first question I have is whether they accounted for the proportion of SUVs on the roads increasing relative to cars. It’s common for second- or third-hand accounts to gloss over details like that.

braythwayt 7y ago
Another angle to consider would be making pedestrian safety mandatory and setting standards, rather than waiting for vague promises from manufacturers. Volvo created a “pedestrian air bag” years ago that inflated on the hood of the car when it detected what could be a pedestrian being struck. They replaced that with systems that auto-brake at low speeds when they detect pedestrians or bicycles. Other manufacturers have this kind of tech too, but there are zero standards and no enforcement AFAICT.
- SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
  > Volvo created a “pedestrian air bag” years ago that inflated on the hood of the car when it detected what could be a pedestrian being struck. I wonder how effective that would be - given that a pedestrian hitting the hood could be coming from a ton of different vectors compared to the collision of a driver with a steering wheel, I wonder if you'd just end up throwing more energy and chaos into the collision.
  - braythwayt 7y ago
    Good question. There is a bunch of information about it on the Internet, here's a post that seems somewhat informative: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/how-pedestrian-airbags-work-45419.html https://www.autoevolution.com/news/how-pedestrian-airbags-wo... But note, they have moved on to trying to avoid striking pedestrians and/or reduce injury through reducing speed.
    - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
      Ah, so it looks to provide cushion for the hood. I had visions of the bumper exploding into a giant airbag ahead of the car. Seems like that's a better choice - moving to prevention rather than mitigation.

braythwayt 7y ago

Another angle to consider would be making pedestrian safety mandatory and setting standards, rather than waiting for vague promises from manufacturers. Volvo created a “pedestrian air bag” years ago that inflated on the hood of the car when it detected what could be a pedestrian being struck. They replaced that with systems that auto-brake at low speeds when they detect pedestrians or bicycles. Other manufacturers have this kind of tech too, but there are zero standards and no enforcement AFAICT.

SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
> Volvo created a “pedestrian air bag” years ago that inflated on the hood of the car when it detected what could be a pedestrian being struck. I wonder how effective that would be - given that a pedestrian hitting the hood could be coming from a ton of different vectors compared to the collision of a driver with a steering wheel, I wonder if you'd just end up throwing more energy and chaos into the collision.
- braythwayt 7y ago
  Good question. There is a bunch of information about it on the Internet, here's a post that seems somewhat informative: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/how-pedestrian-airbags-work-45419.html https://www.autoevolution.com/news/how-pedestrian-airbags-wo... But note, they have moved on to trying to avoid striking pedestrians and/or reduce injury through reducing speed.
  - SketchySeaBeast 7y ago
    Ah, so it looks to provide cushion for the hood. I had visions of the bumper exploding into a giant airbag ahead of the car. Seems like that's a better choice - moving to prevention rather than mitigation.