Velodyne Lidar Calls for Action to Improve Pedestrian Safety
October 20 2020 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
New Velodyne White Paper Shows How Advanced
Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) Can be Improved to Reduce
Nighttime Dangers to Pedestrians
Velodyne Lidar, Inc. (Nasdaq: VLDR) today published a white
paper that calls for independent performance testing of driver
assistance systems to be expanded to include dark nighttime
scenarios. The change would address a gap in current testing
protocols that primarily looks at daytime conditions and largely
overlooks the risks to pedestrians from driver assistance systems
that perform poorly in dark nighttime conditions.
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Side by side comparison of images
produced by automotive camera and Velodyne’s Velarray lidar in dark
conditions with streetlights and low beam headlights. (Graphic:
Velodyne Lidar, Inc.)
The white paper, called “Improving Pedestrian Automatic
Emergency Braking (PAEB) in Dark, Nighttime Conditions,” can be
downloaded here.
Over 6,000 pedestrians are killed every year in traffic-related
crashes in the United States with the vast majority of fatalities
occurring in dark conditions. To address these tragedies, most new
vehicles offer advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) equipped
with Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking (PAEB) as a standard or
optional feature.
PAEB systems provide automatic braking for vehicles when
pedestrians are in the path of the vehicle’s travel and the driver
has taken insufficient action to avoid an imminent crash. However,
current systems utilizing camera and radar technology frequently
fail to protect pedestrians in dark conditions according to
independent testing by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Association (NHTSA) and the American Automobile Association
(AAA).
To reflect real-life conditions, the white paper proposes
expanding future PAEB testing protocols to include tests conducted
in dark, nighttime conditions. The new tests would be conducted in
less than one lux ambient illuminance, using low-beam headlights
and without streetlights. This change would provide the public with
useful information on the performance of pedestrian detection
systems in low-light conditions that occur on roadways.
To demonstrate how expanded testing would work, the white paper
details the results of nighttime PAEB tests conducted by Velodyne.
The tests evaluated a highly-rated PAEB system using current camera
and radar-based technology and Velodyne’s PAEB system that uses
Velodyne’s lidar sensors and Vella™ software. In these nighttime
conditions, the camera and radar-based PAEB system failed in all
five scenarios while the lidar-based system avoided a crash in
every situation tested.
“With dark nighttime conditions so dangerous for pedestrians, it
is imperative vehicle assessment organizations expand PAEB testing
in ambient light conditions of less than one lux,” said David
Heeren, Sr. Technical Product Marketing Manager, Velodyne Lidar.
“Tests performed by NHTSA and AAA demonstrate nighttime performance
represents a major opportunity for improvement in current PAEB
systems. Velodyne testing shows the efficacy of our lidar-based
solution, which can strengthen a vehicle’s functional safety
capabilities and address scenarios that cause thousands of
pedestrian fatalities annually.”
About Velodyne Lidar
Velodyne Lidar (NASDAQ: VLDR) ushered in a new era of autonomous
technology with the invention of real-time surround view lidar
sensors. Velodyne is the first public pure-play lidar company and
is known worldwide for its broad portfolio of breakthrough lidar
technologies. Velodyne’s revolutionary sensor and software
solutions provide flexibility, quality and performance to meet the
needs of a wide range of industries, including autonomous vehicles,
advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), robotics, unmanned
aerial vehicles (UAV), smart cities and security. Through
continuous innovation, Velodyne strives to transform lives and
communities by advancing safer mobility for all. For more
information, visit www.velodynelidar.com.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201020005335/en/
Media Landis Communications Inc. Sean Dowdall (415)
286-7121 velodyne@landispr.com
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