David McCowen at The Daily Telegraph reports “Subaru helping to save lives with EyeSight technology” on pedestrian-crash-recognising-and-reporting technology that might be deployed in some new cars 5 years!

Exclusive: Hit and run fatals are hoped to be reduced by new cars that automatically call an ambulance following a crash.

Subaru says its next-generation “EyeSight” driver assistance suite, due in models such as the Impreza and Forester in 2025, will automatically contact paramedics following collisions between cars and pedestrians.

…
Some 159 pedestrians were killed on Australian roads in 2019. In NSW, 14 have died in the past two months.

Many new cars already feature pedestrian detection systems capable of automatically applying brakes to avoid a smash.

Subaru and other brands plan to combine pedestrian protection features with automatic collision notification technology present in some luxury cars.

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David Levinson, president of the WalkSydney pedestrian awareness group, welcomed the emergency call technology as “an improvement on today”.

… pedestrian advocates said more needs to be done to protect vulnerable road users.

The full comments I sent to David McCowen at the Telegraph:

Thanks for reaching out. Without really knowing the details of how the system works (I can’t find a link online) it is hard to respond in detail.

Anything that reduces response time and increases response rate from collisions between pedestrians and vehicles is an improvement on today. While automatic detection and reporting of collisions is good, automatic avoidance of collisions is better. In any case, it will take decades for such a system to be available on all active cars, as the average age car on the road is over 10 years old. So we think more needs to be done now in terms of lower speed limits to 30 km/h in urban areas, more pedestrian-friendly road rules, safer road designs, better driver training, reducing vehicle mass and height, and more focused enforcement to reduce pedestrian fatalities.
A list of our aims can be found here: https://walksydney.org/2019/09/24/walksydneys-list-of-aims

Let us know if you have further questions.

So practical advice for actually saving lives is reduced to 4 words that endorse the future technology in a lukewarm way and a “more needs to be done” without saying what that “more” is.  An exclusive based on a press release about vapourware is hardly news.