Bosch says it is working on a system that can detect and help avoid pedestrians that step out in front of cars, and it hopes to fit it to production vehicles as soon as 2018.

The system is being developed at Bosch’s research and development center in Renningen, Germany, and is intended to intervene if a driver’s response to a situation will not prevent the collision.

The system uses a stereo video camera to monitor the road ahead for pedestrians and traffic. Software is used to predict the likely paths that they will take based on their speed and direction of travel. Those algorithms are based on datasets of pedestrian behavior derived from dashboard camera video footage. This data provides the system with an understanding of when a collision may be about to occur.

The system doesn’t engage until sensors detect changes in steering angle, vehicle speed and yaw-rate instigated by the driver. If the system believes that the driver’s reaction alone is not enough to prevent a crash, it will provide braking and steering assistance.

The team behind it claims that as long as the driver reacts a half second before the collision, the system can help avoid a crash in 60% of cases.
Whether Bosch’s offering is quite that impressive remains to be seen. But the company is hopeful that it, or at least a system like it, might find its way into production cars by 2018.