Google's automatic driving car gets an unexpected patent that suppresses damage in traffic accidents with pedestrians

Automatic driving cars developed by Google alreadyStart public road testWe are improving technology everyday. However, Google thinks that accidents with pedestrians can not be prevented completely even if it is a highly controlled automatic driving car, and assuming the occurrence of a traffic accident, in order to secure pedestrian safety I found that I acquired a surprising method as a patent.

United States Patent: 9340178

Google patent: Glue would stick pedestrian to self-driving car after collision
http://www.mercurynews.com/drive/ci_29905115/google-patent-protects-pedestrians-from-self-driving-cars

The patent acquired by Google assuming a traffic accident with pedestrians is something like the figure below. Technical ideas seem to be hidden in the place where the front part of the car is multilayered.


The accident countermeasure technology proposed by Google is "to attach a pedestrian to a bonnet". When the automobile coming from behind collides with a pedestrian as shown in FIG. 6A, the protective layer around the front colliding with the collision collides with the surface and a layer of high adhesion appears from inside, and pedestrians riding on the hood are struck It is said to hold.


In the case of a collision accident with a pedestrian, there are many cases of secondary damage that pedestrians are caught in a collided vehicle, or are killed by other vehicles traveling from the back after being struck by the roadway I will. Google assumes such a case and thinks that holding a pedestrian in an automobile that caused an accident is effective in preventing secondary damage.

Safety devices such as seatbelts and airbags were mainly developed to protect people's safety in the car, but in recent years, technologies for protecting the safety of people outside the vehicle have been proposed, and "Volvo · V40 Pedestrian airbag "etc. are put into practical use.

THE ALL-NEW VOLVO V 40 pedestrian air bag - YouTube


When an accident happens in front of the car body, the system is such that pedestrians riding on the bonnet jump out from under the bonnet so that the head does not hit the windshield.


Google's patented technology is also one of the efforts to increase pedestrian safety, and it can be said that it can be applied not only to automated driving cars but also to general cars. However, Professor Bryant Walker Smith of Stanford University said "Google's efforts should be praised, however, because it keeps pedestrians on the bonnet, it was scrambled as a collision of cars crashing into the building As you pointed out, there is a possibility that there will be room for discussion on how much technical superiority is in terms of safety, as you pointed out.

Google's spokesperson also commented that "not all of the patented technology is put into practical use," it is unknown whether the "pedestrian bonding technology" revealed this time will be put to practical use. However, in order to put the automatic driving car technology into practical use, it seems that there is no doubt that Google needs to advance the development of technology to ensure safety.