Technology

Drivers Tend To Kill Pedestrians At Night. Thermal Imaging May Help.

Yes, I need more incentives to kill pedestrians.

What if we reduced the size of cars, reduced speed limits and created cities and towns that are safer to walk in

People could also wear something other than black clothes when they go outside at night.

In IIHS’ latest tests of car headlight systems, fewer than half (43%) earned a good rating. [...] “Vehicles that earn a good rating for visibility in our tests have 23% fewer nighttime pedestrian crashes than those that rate poor.”

That's a lot of room for improvement without new technology.

hmm thermal imaging in cars.... or just more public transit and street lighting..... give me the expensive capitalist hellcreating thing

Drivers Tend To Kill Pedestrians At Night. Thermal Imaging May Help.

Thermal imaging will definitely help spot those dirty walkers so I won't miss as many. Those bastards can blend in sometimes and some of them are deceptively quick. The little ones especially are tough to take out. Of course, sometimes those guys just run right in front of you which are easy points but it takes the sport out of it.

Anyway, it's about time someone put the right tools in the hands of us hunters. I can't wait to have an evening cruise with my lights off and really get a good stalk on, you know?

ITT: "What was the victim wearing at the time? Was the car acting in self-defense? Do cars have qualified immunity? Did the pedestrian pose a threat or instigate the car? Were they wearing their officially state-sanctioned Pedestrian uniform and helmet? Did the pedestrian have any pre-existing conditions?"

As a pedestrian, this is why wearing high viz/lighted clothing at night is so important.

I know I am part of the problem, but the number of people walking around in dark colors and dark jackets at night baffles me. Bonus points if they are jaywalking because they have the right of way.

Combine that with spending any time after sunset either partially blind from super bright LEDs or fully blind from high beams and yeah. Constantly having to drive defensively and try to spot potential hazards a mile ahead in the brief window of just being partially blinded.

So I am all for some thermals I can glance at

My genuine favorite is a motorcyclist who lives out near my ex. Lights off more often than not and he has jet black leathers and helmet and bike

This has been a thing for decades now at least in Mercedes (S & E) and BMW (5+).

And it's not just the camera alone, car headlights have a special projector that selectively illuminates pedestrians (or just does a double flash at them). Works as intended, but few people opt for it ... and gov are still not mandating it (like automatic breaking).

Anything but slowing down when it's difficult to see ahead. We'll just victim blame dead pedestrians, deer and raccoons for wearing dark colors at night.

People often don't help themselves either. I remember this time, I was driving on a country road in the fog. Suddenly I saw my foglights light up a dog walking in the road. So I drove around, then as I got closer I saw a man walking this dog, dressed all in black, on an unlit country road, walking away from traffic, in dense fog.

If he made it back home alive, it's purely down to luck (or his dog being seen before him again).

Oh good, anything to help me kill more at night!

this is gonna be super bad for lizard people 😱

Well yea, more chances of witnesses during the day, so obviously night time is better for… oh wait, we’re talking about accidental deaths?

As much as I like the anti-car think, this really shouldn't be blamed completely on cars. Especially in the US, pedestrian infrastructure in general is lacking. This includes thinks like sidewalks, but also proper lighting at places where people could be (See the sample image of a petrol station in the article, why are there no lights there?).

Additionaly, a lot of people dress dark with no reflection surfaces whatsoever (And some ciclelysts are insane enough to go without light at night). Try wearing stuff with some build-in reflectors at night. It does not need to be an ugly big yellow patch for that. I own a backpack with nicely worked in reflectory surfaces which makes me highly visible at night.

Ofc there is also a component to the Cars and drivers here, but if thermal cameras are the first solution someone can come up with, maybe the start needs to be somewhere else.

Overall: If I can see someone jaywalking on the autobahn about 800m in front of me while going 180kph and can react to that, the cities and villages in the US should probably have something similar in lighting and overall road elsetup.

Like the case with the paintball guy a few years ago. Someone was driving on a road in the woods at night when he suddenly hit a guy - dressed in dark camo, face blackened, etc, anything not to be seen - who came running out of the woods onto the road. He was a paintballer being persued by members of the opposite team. The car took him out of the game, though.