Swedish auto giant Volvo Cars said Thursday it was developing technology in Australian cars that can detect kangaroos, potentially avoiding thousands of collisions a year and major insurance costs. But while the City Safety technology is optimized for city driving, the animal detection version is meant to work at highway speeds.
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There are more than 20,000 crashes involving kangaroos each year.
Volvo Cars, which is owned by China’s Geely, said a team of safety engineers from Sweden were in Australia’s capital Canberra this week to film the roadside behaviour of kangaroos and collect data for its detection and collision-avoidance software. It’s all incorporated in the system Volvo sells as part of its City Safety package. The technology will automatically apply the brakes if it senses that a collision is imminent and the driver doesn’t respond. Kangaroos are smaller than these animals and their behavior is more erratic. “This is why it’s important that we test and calibrate our technology on real kangaroos in their natural environment”, he added. “We are only at the beginning of what is possible”.
Volvo says the technology doesn’t take away the driver’s responsibility but rather can be used as a backup.
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Volvo vehicle Australia Managing Director Kevin McCann said kangaroo research is the latest focus area to help realise Volvo Cars’ vision that no one is killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo auto by 2020. “If the driver is inattentive the vehicle will warm her and eventually make a hard braking to avoid a collision.” he said. A radar sensor mounted in the grille scans the road ahead to detect all moving objects, such as animals, cars, cyclists and pedestrians. Meanwhile, a light-sensitive, high-res camera in the windshield works in synch with the radar to determine which way the object is moving and passes the information onto an onboard computer that crunches the numbers.
