We all know about Night View systems that help drivers see in the dark, but here's one with a cool new twist: pedestrian recognition. Similar to face detection in cameras, the system alerts a driver if there's anyone on foot in the vehicle's path by drawing an outline over the person on the in-dash LCD. It's a cool touch of RoboCop that will no doubt encourage more than a few frat boys to use the system to "target" pedestrians.
In any case, the new tech — which Toyota showed off the system in its latest Crown Hybrid luxury sedan — has one key limitation: it doesn't work if the car's moving faster than 40 miles per hour. No word on pricing yet, but Toyota says it's working on bike and animal recognition, too. This keeps up and it might actually get safe to walk around Brooklyn at night.
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By Bill Drew at 12:22 PM ON 05/30/08
Do we get points for hitting pedestrians?
By Bounce at 8:19 AM ON 06/02/08
Does come with heat-seeking-missiles?
By e.fine at 7:23 AM ON 06/04/08
If it would automatically sound the horn and flash lights to alert the pedestrian it might be okay, otherwise it's a gimmick.
By NMNY at 10:20 AM ON 06/04/08
Can I use this like the x-ray goggles they sell in the comic books?
By DH1959 at 2:12 PM ON 06/04/08
being on the dash would require the drive to take their eyes off the road...wouldn't it be better to be laminated in the front windscreen?
By Sudilos at 12:35 AM ON 06/07/08
Yet another system to tack onto personal HUD glasses. Or my track scan lighting system. This way the secondary lights luminate towards the waistline of the pedestrians. Then you can get some small halo or eye looking lights. So it'll look to the pedestrian like the car has eyes and is looking at them as it passes by.