There is nothing nice about being hit by a car, that is for sure, although there has been airbags for pedestrians in cars for quite some time already to minimize such an impact. Google’s autonomous vehicles look like they are going to take a very different approach to such a situation, as unveiled by a recently approved patent – that of coating the front of a car with a special adhesive. This adhesive will supposedly “prevent the pedestrian from bouncing off the vehicle after the pedestrian impacts the hood.”
Sounds interesting, but will the surface be able to avoid all sorts of dirt and dust that it meets head on every single day? How about moments when you park underneath a tree – won’t the foliage that drop be a sore sight when they remain stuck to the car? Or will the adhesive somehow work well only with certain materials, such as human skin or clothing? The thing is, there is not much hard data available as to what happens when someone is hit by a car – will the person fly off, or will he or she be thrown to the side or thrown over the car?
Still, this is an approved patent, and it does remain to be seen whether it will be brought to reality or not.