Self Driving Cars’ Pedestrian Injury Prevention

With the growing talk of self-driving autonomous vehicles, Fort Lauderdale car accident attorney Joseph Lipsky has wondered about the efforts of the companies hoping to sell driverless cares to protect other drivers and pedestrians. Apparently one of those companies, Google, has also been thinking about how to prevent pedestrian car accident personal injuries. Recently, Google received a patent for what can only be described as human fly paper.

Google’s invention is essentially a strong adhesive type tape which will be placed on the front/hood of their vehicles. In the event of a car vs. pedestrian accident, the tape would “hold” the pedestrian onto the hood of the vehicle, preventing them from falling to the roadway.  As many of the injuries pedestrians suffer after being hit by a car happen when that person is thrown onto the road after being hit by a car, the thought is the tape will help stop the so-called secondary impact.

The inventors envision the tape being covered by some type of shell which will break open upon impact with a pedestrian, but will keep the tape protected from road debris such as dirt and bugs.

While other manufacturers have attempted to develop pedestrian injury protection, including front exterior airbags and 360 degree radar self-braking detection, Google’s system may be one of the first to also try to prevent the secondary impact. Of course, there may be unintended negative consequences from having a pedestrian glued to the hood of your car, including a loss of vision which may cause another crash.

Florida personal injury attorney Joseph Lipsky commends Google and all cutting edge manufacturers with their efforts to remember that safety should remain a major concern when pursuing advanced technology.