IR Sensors Help Save Lives in Pedestrian Automatic Emergency Braking

In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) finalized a new Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard that will make automatic emergency braking (AEB), including pedestrian AEB (PAEB), standard on all passenger cars and light trucks under 10,000 pounds GVW by September 2029. The new standard includes lead vehicle AEB and PAEB for both daytime and nighttime and increases vehicle test speeds. These new standards will drive improved sensor performance, with infrared technologies likely being a key component due to their proven performance advantages at nighttime.

In September 2024, Teledyne FLIR collaborated with VSI Labs, a leading operator of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous driving (AD) development vehicles used for testing, evaluation, and assessment of ADAS and AD components. Testing included their research vehicle and three commercially available vehicles, along with a thermally heated soft pedestrian target provided by the American Center for Mobility. An LWIR camera module was integrated, along with an associated IR pedestrian detector, into the research vehicle. The IR sensor was fused with an automotive visible camera and radar. Analytics from this testing will be presented.

About the presenter
Mike Walters is vice president of product management for emerging products at Teledyne FLIR, where he leads the Lepton micro camera, ASIL-B automotive thermal camera, and SIRAS drone product teams. Before joining FLIR, he worked as senior vice president global account manager for camera modules at Flex. Before Flex he held several product management and engineering roles at Hewlett Packard’s Components Group. He has extensive experience defining, developing, and bringing to market high-volume longwave infrared and visible camera modules. He holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University, along with a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering and a bachelor of arts degree in physic from the University of Southern California.