Skip to main content

Volvo’s driverless-car engineers face a kangaroo conundrum

Some Volvo engineers developing autonomous-vehicle technology recognized that they needed to test it in a range of conditions. After all, that’s why the likes of Waymo and Uber are trying out their self-driving gear in a number of states across the U.S. — to learn about how it handles different weather conditions, landscapes, road systems, and the like — and that includes handling kangaroos.

Ambitious companies as they are, no doubt these firms plan for their technology to one day go global, allowing drivers everywhere to hang up their car keys, sit back, and enjoy the ride. In that case, they’ll need to head Down Under at some point so they can work out how to get their cars to take evasive action when a kangaroo hops onto the road.

Recommended Videos

It’s a challenge that has so far bamboozled the Swedish automaker, whose engineers are apparently having some difficulties in getting their self-driving gear to recognize the unique creatures.

Hopping

It’s all that hopping, apparently, that confuses the sensors, and that isn’t much good for the car’s occupants. And it’s downright diabolical for any kangaroo that’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it’s a problem that needs solving, as every year the animal causes more road accidents in Australia than all other animals combined.

Volvo has been testing its self-driving technology on Australian roads for more than a year, but the kangaroo issue is turning into a major challenge.

“We’ve noticed with the kangaroo being in mid-flight … when it’s in the air it actually looks like it’s farther away, then it lands and it looks closer,” Volvo Australia’s David Pickett told ABC this week.

Even getting the sensors to identify the furry thing in the road as a kangaroo is proving tough, Pickett said, explaining that a kangaroo sitting, standing, and moving create distinctly different shapes.

When Volvo’s researchers arrived in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve in Canberra 18 months ago to begin their work, it’s likely they never imagined kangaroos would prove such a tricky customer. After all, this is the company that’s already created an effective large-animal detection system to help prevent potentially messy car-moose entanglements on Swedish roads.

Pickett said the kangaroo conundrum would not slow down the introduction of self-driving cars on Aussie roads, but confirmed it’s an issue that very definitely needs dealing with.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Cruise autonomous vehicle drives over woman just after she was hit by another car
A Cruise autonomous car.

An autonomous vehicle (AV) operated by Cruise ran over a pedestrian in San Francisco on Monday night just after she’d been hit by another car, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

According to witnesses, the force of the initial impact knocked the woman into the path of the Cruise robotaxi, leaving her pinned under one of its wheels. The driver in the other car reportedly fled the scene.

Read more
An autonomous car in San Francisco got stuck in wet concrete
A Cruise autonomous car.

A self-driving car operated by General Motors-backed Cruise got stuck on Tuesday when it drove into a patch of wet concrete.

The incident happened in San Francisco and occurred just days after California's Public Utilities Commission made a landmark decision when it voted to allow autonomous-car companies Cruise and Waymo to expand their paid ridesharing services in the city to all hours of the day instead of just quieter periods.

Read more
Volkswagen is launching its own self-driving car testing program in the U.S.
Volkswagen self-driving ID. Buzz in Austin

Volkswagen is taking autonomous driving a little more seriously. While the likes of Tesla and Waymo have largely led the development of next-gen driving tech, the legacy automakers are certainly starting to invest more heavily. To that end, Volkswagen has announced its first autonomous driving program in the U.S.

As part of the program, Volkswagen has outfitted 10 all-electric ID. Buzz vans with autonomous driving tech, in partnership with autonomous car tech company MobileEye. Over the next few years, Volkswagen says it'll grow this fleet of autonomous cars to cover at least four additional cities, with the current fleet operating in Austin, Texas. By 2026, Volkswagen hopes to commercially launch autonomous cars in Austin.

Read more