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Vehicles that start moving from a stationary position can cause fatal traffic accidents involving pedestrians. Ultrasonic sensors installed in the vehicle front are an active technology designed to alert drivers to the presence of stationary objects such as rigid walls in front of their vehicles. However, the ability of such sensors to detect humans has not yet been established. Therefore, this study aims to ascertain whether these sensor systems can successfully detect humans. First, we conducted experiments using four vehicles equipped with ultrasonic sensor systems for vehicle-forward moving-off maneuvers and investigated the detection distances between the vehicles and a pipe (1 m long and having a diameter of 75 mm), child, adult female, or adult male. The detections of human volunteers were evaluated under two different conditions: front-facing and side-facing toward the front of each vehicle.

Ultrasonic parking sensors are an active technology designed to alert drivers to the presence of objects behind their vehicle but not the presence of a human. The purpose of this study was therefore to ascertain if these sensor systems can successfully detect a human subject. We accordingly conducted experiments using four vehicles equipped with both rear-facing center and corner ultrasonic parking sensor systems to determine the detection distance between the vehicle and a 1-m tall, 75-mm diameter pipe, a child, an adult woman, and an adult man. The detection of human subjects was evaluated under front-facing and side-facing conditions behind each vehicle. The results indicate that for a front-facing and side-facing child, the center sensor detection distances were 50-84% and 32-64%, respectively, shorter than that of the pipe.

The present study clarifies the mechanism by which an accident occurs when an elderly pedestrian crosses a road in front of a car, focusing on features of the central and peripheral vision of elderly pedestrians who are judging when it is safe to cross the road. For the pedestrian's central visual field, we investigated the effect of age on the timing judgment using an actual car. The results for daytime conditions indicate that the elderly pedestrians tended to make later judgments of when they crossed the road from the right side of the driver's view at high car velocities. At night, for a car with its headlights on high beam, the average car-pedestrian distances of elderly pedestrians on the left side of the driver's view were significantly longer than those of young pedestrians at velocities of 20 and 40 km/h. The eyesight of the elderly pedestrians during the day did not affect the timing judgment of crossing a road.