Background information
Skiers advised to wear cut-resistant underclothes as crash protection
by Siri Schubert
When high-viz clothes make you invisible: reflectors can confuse automatic braking systems
24.1.2025
Who’d have thought reflectors of all things could hinder brake assist systems in modern cars? Obviously, this isn’t a reason to stop wearing clothes that make you stand out. But it does pose a blind spot that puts those doing the right thing in danger.
Being inconspicuous like Harry Potter with his invisibility cloak is every child’s dream. It’s also every parent’s nightmare when they send their brightly clad, reflector-festooned children out in the morning with a queasy feeling.
But guardians do all of this with good reason. At nursery age and in the first few years of school, children can’t correctly assess noises and speeds – that’s if they can even see the traffic over the bonnets of parked cars.
As this positive impact has only been clearly demonstrated in good lighting conditions thus far, the test team is interested in how well emergency braking systems perform in the dark. Notably when the risk of accidents increases. So the IIHS tested three models, a Honda CR-V, Mazda CX-5 and a Subaru Forester, each from 2023 but all equipped with appropriate braking systems.
The cars drove towards a dummy, which was sent across the road from the left or right and in front of the three test vehicles, all travelling at a good 40 km/h. They changed up the conditions: sometimes with, other times without street lighting; some cases with dipped headlights, others with full beam. The test dummy was dressed in different clothing: all black, all white, black with a highly reflective ProViz 360 running jacket, and black with reflective bands.
The dummy was wearing something that looked like this:
Sometimes, the assumption that reflective clothing leads to better results was disturbingly inaccurate.
Surely brake assist would rarely get confused?
Honda’s brake assist failed in all the tests when the dummy was wearing a reflective jacket or high visibility strips. It only reduced speed before the collision by an average of over 50% with dipped headlights, street lighting and when the dummy had white clothing. The test dummy was hit in 46 out of 55 attempts, a rate of 84%.
Similarly, the Mazda didn’t slam on the brakes when the dummy had on reflector strips. Mazda’s brake assist coped slightly better with the running jacket and slowed down by as much as 62%, depending on light conditions. Overall, it was unable to prevent 88% of collisions in 59 attempts.
The Subaru proved it can do much better: in 53 journeys, it only failed to stop in time once. You probably already guessed it: the dummy was wearing reflector strips during that particular attempt.
This blind spot needs to go
Anyone wearing reflectors to protect themselves while walking or cycling on dark streets is surprisingly ill equipped in this test set-up. Obviously, this is a problem that manufacturers need to address as soon as possible.
Pedestrians, cyclists, and road workers often wear reflective clothing for safety. It’s unacceptable that these measures could inadvertently make them harder for AEB systems to recognize.
You could argue that fluorescent clothing alone should be enough to make drivers aware of the hazard. You can see the difference it makes here:
It goes without saying that we shouldn’t rely on brake assist. But the results still make you feel a bit queasy, because it’s people who seem to be doing everything right that are at risk. We can only hope that manufacturers will take this to heart and eliminate this blind spot.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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