Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Autonomous cars

Study: AVs May Not Detect Darker-Skinned Pedestrians As Often As Lighter Ones

A PDS senses three white-presenting pedestrians in its path. Source: Virginia Department of Transportation via Creative Commons.

Driverless cars are worse at detecting darker skin pigments, meaning that autonomous vehicles might not solve the already disproportionate pedestrian death toll faced by black communities, according to a new study.

The facial and body recognition technology built into many pedestrian detection systems does not recognize and react to darker-skinned people as consistently as it does lighter-skinned people, according to the study from Georgia Tech. The researchers studied several leading technologies, and found that they were consistently between 4 and 10 percent less accurate when they encountered images of human figures with skin types four, five and six on the Fitzpatrick scale, a commonly-used scientific tool used to differentiate between human skin colors in machine learning contexts.

The Fitzpatrick scale
The Fitzpatrick scale
The Fitzpatrick scale

Many Black, indigenous and other people of color fall into the higher end of the Fitzpatrick scale; nationally, people of color are significantly more likely to be killed in pedestrian crashes with motor vehicles.

Source: Smart Growth America.
Source: Smart Growth America
Source: Smart Growth America.

What may be more troubling, though, is why automated detection systems are so bad at detecting black and brown skin. Researchers point to two primary reasons — and both have to do with the inequitable data sets that companies use to train computers that are supposed to be smarter than human drivers.

First, and most outrageously: the researchers found that, on average, the training data set that many pedestrian detection systems use had roughly 3.5 times more examples of lower-Fitzpatrick scored (read: typically white) pedestrians compared to higher-ranked (Black and brown) pedestrians. Put another way: pedestrian detection systems are typically better at saving the lives of walkers who look like the walkers they've seen most often in their training models — and the computers are looking at way fewer images of dark-skinned people.

Second, researchers found that many of the data sets themselves were fairly small — and as anyone who's taken a high school statistics class knows, too-small data sets can often make for dangerous actions based on bad analysis. That's part of why people who build machine learning and artificial intelligence systems are actively working to expand the data available to train pedestrian detection systems; if you've ever "proved you're human" to your email server by picking out the crosswalk in a Captcha photograph, you probably added to an automated vehicle's training set without even knowing it. But even after years of efforts, it still hasn't been enough.

Automated vehicles might be getting incrementally smarter every day, but as countless studies before this one have flagged, they're nowhere near smart enough to be on our roads yet — even though they are on our roads anyway, and have already killed pedestrians.

And moreover, we still haven't proven that pedestrian detection systems will ever be smart enough to prevent 100 percent of car crashes and save 100 percent of pedestrian lives. A recent study from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that even if every single car on the road were made autonomous tomorrow, at least 66 percent of crashes would still happen. According to the study, that's in large part because AVs just aren't up to the complex task of piloting a dangerous machine through a dangerous built environment, and require all-too-dangerous human beings, complete with their implicit racial biases, to help them out.

“AVs need not only to obey traffic laws, but also to adapt to road conditions and implement driving strategies that account for uncertainty about what other road users will do, such as driving more slowly than a human driver would in areas with high pedestrian traffic or in low-visibility conditions," the study said.

That paragraph should trouble anyone who wants drivers or "driverless" cars to stop killing Black people — and sadly, that time isn't coming anytime soon. In the short term, the best approach would be to dismantle the underlying racist causes of traffic violence that disproportionately affect communities of color — and stop hoping that miracle tech will make the problem go away.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Friday Video: How to Gear Up For Your Fall Bike Commute

The only must-haves for a cycling commute are a bike and a place you feel safe riding — but a few accessories don't hurt, either.

August 8, 2025

Can You Tell Me How to Get to Friday’s Headlines?

"Sesame Street," which taught generations of children about life in the big city, might not be long for this world.

August 8, 2025

Talking Headways Podcast: Technical Assistance for Equitable TOD

Emily LaFlamme on how the Elevated Works technical assistance program helps developers bring equitable transit-oriented development to life.

August 7, 2025

Thursday’s Headlines Wonder if Ride-Sharing Is Good, Actually

It's been shown to replace walking, biking and transit trips, but two writers argue it's better than taxis, and at least lifts the burden of car ownership.

August 7, 2025

This Company Wants to Help More Americans Buy Used E-Bikes

Trade wars in Washington are having a chilling effect on the U.S. bike market. Could selling more used cycles fill the gap?

August 7, 2025

We Can’t Have Justice For All Without Public Transit For All

A Philadelphia lawyer makes the case for why public transit is crucial for a fair justice system.

August 7, 2025
See all posts