Harman Announces Safety System Designed To Reduce Vehicle 'Back Over' Incidents

Harman said it developed a safety system to help eliminate vehicle blind spots that lead to “back over" accidents that kill or injure 15,000 pedestrians a year in the U.S. Increased adoption of bigger vehicles such as SUVs has exacerbated the blind spot issue for consumers, Harman said. The company’s Reverse Pedestrian Detection technology uses computer vision and a fish-eye camera to detect pedestrians behind the vehicle and combines data from ultrasonic sensors for close pedestrian verification, it said. The application also uses the steering wheel angle and speed for calculating probable collision trajectories, it said. The software-based technology, designed to be housed in existing vehicle infotainment systems, doesn’t require additional hardware and is available to automotive OEMs now.