Smarter Safer Cars

Safer cars, it's a journey...

"In 2012, 4,743 pedestrians were killed in traffic crashes in the United States, and another 76,000 pedestrians were injured. This averages to one crash-related pedestrian death every 2 hours, and a pedestrian injury every 7 minutes. Pedestrians are 1.5 times more likely than passenger vehicle occupants, to be killed in a car crash on each trip."

http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/Pedestrian_Safety/index.html

about 10-15 years ago, with the cars getting quieter, this created a problem that pedestrians could not hear a car approaching them to possible get out of the way. Of course now with the ear buds screwed in peoples ears and just not paying attention to the world around them. it really doesn't matter.

Maybe they could have sound targeted horn that sounded automatically before brakes....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2554619/Bizarre-siren-blasting-powerful-beam-sound-400ft-form-police-weaponry-repel-rioting-hooligans.html

....sort of a dumbed down version of this....

even though they have a right-a-way. They should still be aware of their environment and take responsibility. On something like this, yield to them, yet I rather see a something like a paintball gun option for people like these.

For me, right-a-way or not, you should always depend on yourself more than on a stranger when it comes to your own personal safety.

more...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAeEnLr3WYk

No matter how smart they make cars, there will always be idiots who can out dumb them.

Making cars smarter to offset dumber pedestrians?

The smarter cars get, the dumber drivers get. I think there must be a universal law of conservation of intelligence.

First car accidents....

".... In 1869, Irish scientist Mary Ward was riding in a steam-powered automobile built by her cousins. As they rounded a bend in the road, Ward was thrown from her seat and fell in the vehicle's path. One of the wheels rolled over her and broke her neck, killing her instantly.

Ohio City, Ohio claims the first accident involving a gasoline-powered auto, a little closer to what most of us think of as a car today. In 1891, engineer James Lambert was driving one of his inventions, an early gasoline-powered buggy, when he ran into a little trouble. The buggy, also carrying passenger James Swoveland, hit a tree root sticking out of the ground. Lambert lost control and the vehicle swerved and crashed into a hitching post. Both men suffered minor injuries.

The first recorded pedestrian fatalities by car came a few years later. In 1896, Bridget Driscoll stepped off of a London curb and was struck and killed by a gas-powered Anglo-French model car driven by Arthur Edsall. While the car had a top speed of four miles per hour, neither Edsall nor Driscoll-who witnesses described as "bewildered" by the sight of the vehicle and frozen in place-were able to avoid the collision. Edsall was arrested, but the death was ruled an accident and he was not prosecuted. The coroner who examined Driscoll's body is famously quoted as saying that he hoped "such a thing would never happen again." (That same year, a bicyclist was killed by an automobile in New York City.)

The first pedestrian death in the U.S. occurred on September 13, 1899 (not a Friday). Henry Bliss, according to contemporary accounts, was either disembarking from a New York City streetcar or helping a woman step out when he was struck by an electrically-powered taxi cab. He died from injuries to his head and chest the next morning.

The first driver fatality from a collision (not counting Ward's unfortunate ejection) happened in 1898, when Englishman Henry Lindfield and his son were driving from Brighton to London. Near the end of their trip, Lindfield lost control of the car while going down a hill. They crashed through a fence and Lindfield was thrown from the driver's seat before the car ran into a tree and caught his leg between them. His son was not hurt and ran for help. At the hospital, surgeons found the leg was crushed below the knee and decided to amputate it. After the operation, Lindfield remained unconscious and died the following day."

http://mentalfloss.com/article/31807/when-and-where-was-first-car-accident

You gotta' wonder if horses ever ran into each other....or were they the first 'smart car'.....?

The first smart car was made with Dodge written on each end

Just how far away are autonomous cars?

What if we combine the old 5 mph bumpers with cow catchers?