Anyone who's driven in city traffic knows just how hard it can be to keep track of other cars.
Add pavements full of distracted shoppers or hurried commuters and, sadly, there's every chance that somebody could get hurt.
But a clever new system being tested by Swedish carmaker Volvo aims to make all low-speed crashes a thing of the past, and could make city centres a far safer place to be.
Volvo already fits City Safety to its XC60 sport utility vehicle (SUV), which applies the brakes at low speeds if it senses an imminent crash with another car. But next year's S60 will get an improved system that keeps track of pedestrians, too.
The system's radar, TV camera and control unit can spot when somebody is about to walk out in front of the car and - if the driver doesn't react to a warning - it slams the brakes on to avoid them.
It's claimed that the system can avoid hitting pedestrians when travelling at 15mph or slower, while at higher speeds slamming on the anchors results in a collision with up to 75% less force.
Engineers at the company say that they've been working on the technology for 10 years, but not everyone is convinced it will work: US car blog Jalopnik worries that drivers will learn to rely on the system over their own skill.
"We'd much rather see more pedestrianized streets in city centers and barriers between sidewalks and streets than we would expensive, prone-to-failure technology," wrote road test editor Wes Stiler.
