Streetsblog recently reported that Google, which is developing self-driving cars, has patented a “flypaper or double-sided duct tape”-like technology to stick pedestrians to the cars that hit them, hoping this will minimize injuries. When people walking are struck by people driving cars, they are sometimes injured further by then striking the pavement or being driven over by the cars. Google’s technology would instead adhere them to the cars following the initial impact. Seems like there’s a more obvious way to prevent pedestrian injuries—designing streets to keep automobile speeds down and minimize dangerous interactions between cars and people walking.

Streetsblog’s Angie Schmitt writes:

A much more important question for the impending autonomous car future is how these systems will minimize the potential for collisions with pedestrians in the first place. A fleet of robocars won’t need flypaper if they can’t exceed, say, 15 mph while operating on crowded city streets.

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