Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve, Australia - Kangaroos may be cute, but they're also erratic and have absolutely no traffic sense whatsoever.
Which makes them a menace on Australia's long, straight outback roads, which are mostly unfenced and where they have a habit of hopping into the path of speeding vehicles, causing more than 20 000 kangaroo strikes a year and costing over A$75 million (R744 million) in insurance claims alone.
Hitting a 'roo at 110km/h (the maximum speed limit throughout most of Australia) will destroy most family cars, and is usually terminal for both humans and marsupials involved.
So a team of Volvo safety researchers has travelled to the Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve near Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory to film and study the roadside behaviour of kangaroos in their natural habitat.
Their goal is to develop a kangaroo detection and avoidance system, using radar and cameras technology to detect kangaroos and automatically apply the brakes if necessary.
ERRATIC BEHAVIOUR
But it's not that simple, as senior safety engineer Martin Magnusson explained: "While our pedestrian detection technology is geared towards city driving, kangaroo strikes typically occur at highway speeds.
"In Sweden we've done research involving larger, slower moving animals such as moose, reindeer and cows, which are a serious threat on our country roads. Kangaroos are smaller and their behaviour is more erratic, making them very unpredictable and difficult to avoid.
"That's why it's important to test our system on real kangaroos in their natural environment."
Kangaroo research is a significant focus area in Volvo's vision that nobody should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car by 2020.
"The technology isn't designed to take responsibility away from the driver," Magnusson said. "but if you're not concentrating the car will warn you, and eventually intervene with hard braking to avoid a collision."
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