RC Car Prototypes Equipped With Automatic Emergency Braking System

If you're tired of your kids ramming their remote control vehicles into the walls in your house, there just might be a fix on the way that doesn't involve padding your baseboards. A company has implemented emergency braking systems into prototype RC cars to have them automatically stop before they run head-on into a wall.

It's essentially the same technology that's equipped in a handful of newer cars, where the on-board computer and sensor system will automatically brake if it detects that it's getting too close to a barrier. So even if your kid has the pedal to the metal and headed straight for the wall, the car will automatically brake before it causes any damage to either the car or the wall.

The prototype RC cars, which were developed by CCP, are being shown off at the International Tokyo Toy Show this weekend. The RC cars come with a pair of front-mounted infrared sensors that monitor the distance to other objects that are in the car's path, and if it detects that an object is approaching and there's a risk of a collision, the RC car will automatically stop before hitting the barrier.

The prototypes also automatically back up by themselves a little ways so that kids can easily get back to driving without hitting reverse. Of course, as a child, driving full speed into the wall is part of the fun, but as a parent, you probably don't think so.

So, when should we expect these to hit the market? It's said that these RC cars will "commercialize" later this year in the fall, but it's unknown how widespread the new braking system will get, and which RC car manufacturers will pick up the new tech. Pricing is also unknown at this point.

VIA: Jalopnik

SOURCE: Tech-On!