Wildlife protection with a difference: Volkswagen follows this crazy plan

Thousands of accidents occur each year in Australia where vehicles collide with wildlife, often resulting in extensive damage to vehicles, injuries to residents and wildlife deaths.

Kangaroos are involved in about 90 percent of these accidents. That’s why Volkswagen Australia has been looking for a solution for a long time that would protect both parties: the driver and the animal.

In a three-year collaboration with the University of Melbourne, technology was developed that is intended to prevent or reduce collisions by restraining animals.

This is done through the so-called “RooBadge”, which means something like a kangaroo logo. A high-performance directional loudspeaker, which emits special noises to scare away kangaroos and other large animals approaching the vehicle’s path, is on the VW logo.

How does it all work? The real-time data is used by the wildlife rescue organization Waya. This provides information about the location of kangaroos across the Australian continent. This is important because several species of kangaroo live in different regions of Australia. Different tones are also used there.

These include dingo calls, bird alarm calls, predator calls and kangaroo foot strikes, which are mixed with “synthetic sounds”. A directional microphone allows sound to be emitted in a focused manner. The system can be adjusted and operated individually using specially designed software and the integrated infotainment system in the car.

In addition, VW Australia plans to make this anti-wildlife technology available to other car manufacturers worldwide to improve safety when dealing with wild animals. Discussions with partners from Europe and the United States are already underway.