# Age and gender bias in pedestrian detection algorithms

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.10490 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.10490/

## Key facts

- Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 25 Jun 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 18 of 18)

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## Abstract (arXiv)

Pedestrian detection algorithms are important components of mobile robots, such as autonomous vehicles, which directly relate to human safety. Performance disparities in these algorithms could translate into disparate impact in the form of biased accident outcomes. To evaluate the need for such concerns, we characterize the age and gender bias in the performance of state-of-the-art pedestrian detection algorithms. Our analysis is based on the INRIA Person Dataset extended with child, adult, male and female labels. We show that all of the 24 top-performing methods of the Caltech Pedestrian Detection Benchmark have higher miss rates on children. The difference is significant and we analyse how it varies with the classifier, features and training data used by the methods. Algorithms were also gender-biased on average but the performance differences were not significant. We discuss the source of the bias, the ethical implications, possible technical solutions and barriers.