General News
11 April, 2024
VW app to avoid kangaroos
A SEEMINGLY simple device that replaces a Volkswagen’s front badge could save countless kangaroos and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage by emitting a warning signal of a vehicle’s approach.
Developed over three years by Volkswagen Australia and the DDB Group in consultation with the University of Melbourne and WIRES, it is hoped that Volkswagen’s ‘RooBadge’ will help reduce collisions with kangaroos.
Volkswagen commercial vehicles director Ryan Davies said connecting to an in-car app, RooBadge calibrated a vehicle’s GPS coordinates with kangaroo distribution data.
“The ‘badge’ itself is a circular disc some 17cm in diameter that would act as protective shields, replacing the current Volkswagen roundel/badge,” he said.
“This conveys a unique audio deterrent for the kangaroo species that inhabits the vehicle’s particular location.
“A mixture of natural and artificial sounds is mixed in real time and projected in a high frequency audio signal.
“Why is Volkswagen investing time and energy in this project? Because we can and it’s the right thing to do.
“A collision with a ‘roo can be devastating. It is not easily forgotten once seen, and certainly not if experienced.
“Then there’s the possibility of a front-on collision with an approaching vehicle at country road speeds when one driver is trying to avoid striking a kangaroo. These are even more likely to have a fatal human outcome.” After extensive trials, permission was obtained from the University of Melbourne Office of Research Ethics and Integrity to move into stage four trials, involving kangaroos in the wild.
“[RooBadge does] something no kangaroo deterrent has been able to do before,” Melbourne University’s Associate Professor Graeme Coulson said.
“It’s difficult to produce a single sound that will deter all kangaroos, because the species are different to each other. Using advancement in car technology we can change the sound deterrent by GPS location,” he said.
“We have worked on sounds that will be meaningful to eastern grey kangaroos, things like dingo calls, alarm calls made by birds and the alarm thumps that kangaroos make to warn each other. We will then be able to tweak the sound for other species.”
Wildlife Information Rescue and Education Service (WIRES) spokesman John Grant said “kangaroo collisions are increasing every year”.
“WIRES is grateful to automotive companies like Volkswagen for researching and developing solutions to better protect both our kangaroos and motorists,” he said.
The University of Melbourne’s Dr Helen Bender, whose research has been used extensively in this project, said “roadkill is a problem all around the world”.
“What’s interesting about deer relative to kangaroos is that they’re very similar in body size, head size, and ear size. What we know from science is that the ear shape in the head shape tells us that they probably have similar hearing ranges. So, whatever we learn has transferability to the deer as well.”
