ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — At a testing site for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), engineers are paying close attention to see how well Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) systems work when it comes to spotting someone trying to cross the street.

“Fatal pedestrian crashes mostly occur at night, and there’s technology in new vehicles that detects and automatically applies and brakes if you’re going to potentially hit a pedestrian. We know this technology does well during the day,” David Kidd with the IIHS said.

But what about at night? IIHS tested three different 2023 cars: a Honda CRV, a Mazda CX5 and a Subaru Forester.

“We had three vehicles that we tested as they approached a pedestrian across the road with different types of clothing, and for two of those vehicles, they didn’t respond at all when that pedestrian was wearing reflective strips on the joints and on the limbs, kind of like what you would see with construction workers or emergency personnel,” Kidd said. “We also saw that one of those vehicles didn’t respond at all when the pedestrian was wearing a retro-reflective jacket.”

A retro-reflective jacket is what we see our construction workers, law enforcement and emergency personnel wearing while out at dark.

“That similar type of pattern that two of the three vehicles that technology that detects pedestrians, didn’t respond at all,” Kidd added.

The Subaru stopped in all the scenarios but one, which showed engineers the technology could work if all car manufacturers used the same quality of sensors.

“The technology is out there, and it is newer technology. So hopefully you know this research and bringing up these limitations gets them to fast track those improvements to this technology,” Kidd said.

Kidd also says the test shows him how important street lighting is. He also notes that while Automatic Emergency Braking may not work all the time, it is still important to wear reflective gear at night so that drivers can see you.