A Leap Forward for Safety: Volvo Developing First-Ever Kangaroo Collision Avoidance System

In Australia, kangaroos represent one of the most common and most costly causes of traffic collisions—over 20,000 each year according to the National Roads & Motorists’ Association (NRMA). Volvo Cars, a worldwide safety innovator, is working to reduce injuries, fatalities, and costs associated with this issue by developing the first-ever kangaroo detection and collision avoidance system.

The automaker is starting from the ground up (literally) when it comes to the project. In late October, Volvo safety experts travelled to the Australian Capital Territory to record and study roadside behavior of kangaroos in their natural habitat.

Volvo is applying its previous experience with radar and camera technology to the problem of kangaroo detection. The proposed system will recognize kangaroo activity and automatically apply brakes if a collision is imminent.

The nature of kangaroo movement represents a unique challenge for Volvo, but one that it’s embracing. “Whereas Volvo Cars’ 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 Cars. “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.”

Creating viable kangaroo detection technology will obviously have wide-ranging implications for drivers everywhere. The technology is an evolution of Volvo’s City Safety system, which allows for more immediate braking than would be possible via human reaction. It’s just one more way Volvo is working toward its goal of no one killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by 2020.

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Image courtesy Volvo