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Yale Lift Truck Technologies today announced its pedestrian awareness camera system won a 2025 GOOD DESIGN award in the industrial category.
The system accurately identifies pedestrians at ranges up to 16 feet through a 120-degree field of view, helping reinforce lift truck operation best practices, enhance operator awareness, and support warehouse safety.
Yale’s pedestrian awareness camera was designed by Steven LaFevers, Alex Sakowski, and Josh Eby.
“In the 2025 MHI Industry Report, 52% of businesses ranked hiring and retaining workers as one of their top supply chain challenges. But despite difficulty sourcing labor, operations must continue, so warehouses have seen an uptick in inexperienced lift truck operators,” said Josh Eby, Yale Lift Truck Technologies global product manager. “The pedestrian awareness camera system is engineered to give operators a helping hand, and help operations reduce the likelihood of lift truck-related incidents.”
The camera system is mounted on the rear, forks-trailing side of the truck and automatically alerts lift truck operators whenever a pedestrian is detected. A voiceover communicates pedestrian proximity and a light indicates which zone the pedestrian is in on the truck-mounted operator remote, making the operator aware of the pedestrian’s presence and location, and enabling them to adjust. Once the pedestrian is no longer in view of the camera, the alerts disengage.
Operations can also opt up to include traction alerts, which automatically and gradually slow down the lift truck, creating an effect similar to the operator removing their foot from the accelerator. While the operator remains in ultimate control of the equipment, the traction alert helps to get their attention and encourages action to avoid the detected pedestrian by slowing down, steering away, or both.
The system was developed using extensive amounts of real-world photographic data and adapts to various lighting and environmental conditions. It is optimized for travel speeds of 5 miles per hour or less, giving operators ample time to identify alerts and react to avoid impacts.
The pedestrian awareness camera is the latest addition to the Yale Reliant suite of operator assist technologies, which makes this recognition the third time a Yale Reliant system has won a GOOD DESIGN Award.
The full system won in 2023, and Advanced Dynamic Stability (ADS) designed by Ed Stilwell won in 2024.
The award recognizes manufacturers each year for their pursuit of extraordinary design excellence. Yale Reliant initially launched in 2021 and has since accumulated over 24 million hours of run time on more than 8,300 units deployed in the field.
Yale Lift Truck Technologies' Reliant operator assist system intervenes automatically to help reinforce operating best practices in real time and prevent forklift accidents.
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