The Swedish car maker is taking its pedestrian detection safety system - that brakes automatically if it detects a pedestrian in the vehicle's path - a step further by equipping it to detect animals.
The anti-roadkill device is being developed primarily to prevent moose strikes in the brand's home country - Swedish statistics show 7000 of the 47,000 animal-related crashes last year involved the large animals. The new incarnation of the safety system is part of Volvo's 2020 road safety vision for 2020 to eliminate occupants suffering serious injuries in a new Volvo.
Development engineers are tweaking the pedestrian detection system to recognise different animal species, beginning with the larger animals most likely to cause serious injury - for example moose, deer and reindeer. Volvo active safety systems' Andreas Eidehall says the radar/infra-red camera system monitors the road ahead, alerts the driver with an audible signal and brakes automatically if the driver fails to react.
"In cases in which it cannot help the driver entirely avoid the collision, the system will slow down the car sufficiently to help reduce the force of impact and thus of serious injuries," he says. "In an impact with a moose, there is a relatively high risk of personal injury since it is common for the animal to end up on or roll across the front of the car and its windscreen."
Volvo Australia's Jaedene Hudson says the brand's new accident avoidance technology would be beneficial to drivers here. "In Australia, kangaroos and wombats cause the most damage in traffic accidents," she says.
Ms Hudson says the company was in discussions about Australian fauna and the system's criteria. "Volvo has also indicated that there may be an opportunity to visit Australia to test the technology on our wildlife," she says.
The Australian Veterinary Association's statistics show more than 5 per cent of serious road accidents are caused by animal strike, with the numbers of unreported accidents likely to be much higher. In NSW alone more than 9000 serious accidents involve animal strikes each year.
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