What happened
Subaru offered EyeSight, a camera-based driver assistance system, as an option on various 2013 to 2017 models. It can brake automatically when it detects that a crash with a pedestrian is imminent. Researchers at the Highway Loss Data Institute and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety compared insurance claims for Subarus with and without it. They counted bodily injury liability claims without any vehicle damage claim, which earlier research links to injuries of pedestrians and others outside vehicles. Their regression models accounted for driver age, gender, location, vehicle series and other factors. In a paper for the 26th Enhanced Safety of Vehicles conference in June 2019, they report that vehicles with EyeSight had a statistically significant 35% reduction in these claims. The reduction was 33% for the first generation of the system and 41% for the second. Among single models, only the Legacy and Outback results were statistically significant. The claims are a proxy, which may include other crashes and miss pedestrian crashes that also damaged the vehicle. The paper does not say how the camera software recognizes pedestrians.
Sources
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Report, by authors with no tie to the system.
Wakeman K, Moore MJ, Zuby DS, Hellinga LA. Effect of Subaru EyeSight on pedestrian-related bodily injury liability claim frequencies. Proceedings of the 26th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles, June 2019. The authors are staff of the Highway Loss Data Institute and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, and EyeSight fitment was read from vehicle identification numbers.
When all series were combined, Subaru vehicles with EyeSight showed a statistically significant 35% reduction in BI-only claim frequency.
Details
AI system
- Workflow
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The system braked automatically when its cameras detected an imminent crash with a pedestrian. EyeSight was optional, so the same Subaru series with and without it could be compared.
Follow-up
- Conditions for replication
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The cameras must detect the pedestrian in time to brake. Injury-only liability claims must keep reflecting pedestrian crashes, since the study uses them as a proxy.
Entry details
- Sector
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Road vehicle crash avoidance.
- Purpose
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Subaru built EyeSight to warn the driver and brake automatically when its cameras detect an imminent crash, including one with a pedestrian.
Not yet checked: model, release, provider, role, configuration, inputs and outputs, autonomy, human oversight, beneficiaries, reach, distribution and access, duration, every measurement question, every money question, ownership and control, dependencies, cross-border connections, geopolitical implications, replication attempts, availability, institutional decision, grounds, action and result, success criterion, every evidence question, observed or intended, alternative assessments, related entries, other identifiers, category mappings.
Cite this record
Peter H. Vartanian. (2026). Subarus with EyeSight had 35% fewer claims linked to pedestrians (AIBD-0864). Artificial Intelligence Benefits Database, edition of 31 October 2026. https://petervartanian.xyz/aibd/records/AIBD-0864.html (archived at https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/AADSII, version 4.0)