As www.carshowroom.com.au can attest from the Land Rover Discovery Sport launch earlier this year, the roads outside our national capital are populated by thousands of kangaroos which have no knowledge about passing traffic.
So it came as no surprise Canberra was the location chose by Swedish giant Volvo to test its new kangaroo detection and collision avoidance system.
According to the NSW-based NRAM there are more than 20,000 vehicle incidents with kangaroos each year amounting to repair costs of more than $75 million.
Volvo’s system – a flow-on from pedestrian detection technology - uses radar and camera technology and automatically applies the brakes if an accident is imminent.
“Whereas Volvo Cars’ Pedestrian Detection technology is geared towards city driving, animal detection is designed to work at highway speeds,” revealed Volvo engineer Martin Magnusson. “Kangaroos are very unpredictable animals and difficult to avoid, but we are confident we can refine our animal detection technology to detect them and avoid collisions on the highway.”
Mr Magnusson added: “In Sweden we have done research involving larger, slower moving animals like elk, reindeer and cows which area serious threat on our roads. Kangaroos are smaller than these animals and their behavior is more erratic. That is why it’s important that we test and calibrate our technology on real kangaroos in their natural environment.”
