New Car On The Market Offers Pedestrian Detection System

By Rick Wells, The News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Fifty-one people were either killed or injured in auto pedestrian accidents in 2008. 

Wouldn't it be great if someone developed a pedestrian detection system for cars? 

No sooner said than done, almost. Volvo has the technology on one of its new models.

"It uses two pieces of technology," said Angelo Angotti, Volvo.

Angotti is showing off the 2011 Volvo S60. It has a revolutionary pedestrian detection system. There's a radar in the grill and a camera near the rear view mirror. The images from both are fed to a computer.

"It will then compare the shape to more than 10,000 human images that are on a hard drive in there," said Angotti,

If it recognizes it as a human, the computer stops the car.

Beeping is designed to alert the driver and allow for reaction time.

"The driver should always be in control. This is strictly a backup," Angotti said.

He also said the vehicle is the first version of this type of system in any car, and is designed to recognize humans -- not dogs, bicycles or deer. If this proves successful, other images could be added to the memory.

"This is not taking the place of responsible driving. It's designed to help you out," said Angotti.

Volvo is demonstrating the new technology at Volvo Tulsa at 41st and South Memorial. The demo is at Jackie Cooper Imports Wednesday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.