More than other countries in the world, motorists in Australia have to be constantly alert while driving in order to avoid one of the most costly causes of traffic collisions in the country, kangaroos.
According to the National Roads & Motorists’ Association (NRMA), there are over 20,000 kangaroo strikes on Australian roads each year, costing over AUD$75 million in insurance claims, and innumerable human cost of serious injuries and fatalities.
To tackle this alarming issue, Volvo has sent a team of safety experts to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve near Canberra to film and study the roadside behaviour of kangaroos in their natural habitat. The data collected will be used to develop the first ever kangaroo detection and collision avoidance system.
The prototype system fitted on a Volvo XC90 features radar and camera technology to detect kangaroos and pre-emptively applies the brakes automatically if an accident is imminent. It’s capable of reacting quicker than a human could.
“Whereas Volvo’s Pedestrian Detection technology is geared towards city driving, our kangaroo detection research is focusing on highway speed situations,” said Martin Magnusson, senior safety engineer at Volvo.
“Kangaroos are very unpredictable animals and difficult to avoid, but we are confident we can refine our technology to detect them and avoid collisions on the highway,” he added.
The Swedish carmaker has performed research into similar technology involving larger, slower moving animals like moose, reindeer and cows. Magnusson added, “kangaroos are smaller than these animals and their behaviour is more erratic.”
Kangaroo detection technology is one of the focus areas to realise Volvo’s vision that no one is killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by 2020, according to Volvo Car Australia Managing Director Kevin McCann.
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How about Rempit detection for Malaysia?
When nasi lemak ministers don’t do anything about rempit, what else can do?
oh volvo , get your human detection spot on first then worry about kangroos later , there are few videos on youtube show your system is not exactly brilliant…
btw , can we get a system where it will always runover politicians whenever it detects one , id love that technology , thank you in advance !!
A few youtube fails, then suddenly Volvo is a failure tin milo?
These technologies have proven helped reduce collisions, of course it’s not perfect. Else, there won’t be accident anymore.
One can always have faith Volvo will continue to improve it, at least.
Who cares. When it fails it fails lor. You cannot say a failure to be otherwise, understand?????
Better run over your mother first. See how it feels like to run over other beings. Don’t shoot your mouth off before using your brain.
wont the kangaroos spot the said volvo easier if it was painted in a more distinctive colour….?
We need cow detection here. Always there are cows lying in the middle of the road.
sam loo said not good.. no RV
just kill the kangaroo as long as your car has a good RV