Continental has announced its partnership with outdoor clothing specialist Urban Circus to develop a highly Detectable Jacket that offers cyclists and pedestrians a new dimension of safety on the road.
To develop the product, Urban Circus used its expertise in outdoor clothing that protects against darkness, wind and rain, while Continental worked with its experience in vehicle sensors.
Notably, the jacket is both wind and waterproof and has water vapour permeability; however, it is still breathable and wicks moisture caused by perspiration to the outside.
Continental noted that compared to conventional high-visibility jackets, the Detectable Jacket is much better recognisable to the human eye.
It is also up to twice as visible to LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) camera sensors, which constantly monitor the vehicles’ surroundings.
A press release from Continental said that the special arrangement of fluorescent and reflective inserts in the patented Urban-RPrint technology fabric used for the Detectable Jacket is detected by onboard cameras and LiDAR systems faster and more reliably.
Moreover, the size and position of the fabric inserts were chosen so that the sensors could directly detect the silhouette of a cyclist or pedestrian, and at the same time, the risk of dazzling the sensors and cameras was minimised.
In addition, glass microbead technology increases visibility to the human eye by up to 300 meters. This is made possible by the retroreflective Urban-RPrint fabric, which is coated with thousands of micro-glass spheres and can reflect light from vehicle headlights up to 300 meters away.
Eric Vincelot, Head, Continental Engineering Services, France, said, “With the Detectable Jacket, a joint innovation from Continental’s own development and production service provider Continental Engineering Services and Urban Circus, we are moving one further step closer to making urban traffic safer for VRUs.”
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