Kangaroos 1, Self-Driving Cars 0

Kangaroos 1, Self-Driving Cars 0

Kangaroos, and the way they move, are confusing Volvo's self-driving cars.

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Kangaroo moves In Australia, Volvo is testing self-driving cars—and Kangaroos, and the way they jump is confounding the technology. While the system can detect the way other large animals move, Kangaroos and their ability to catch significant air, and land quite far from where they started, is hard for Volvo's self-driving system to read.

The main problem, Volvo told ABC News, is that the autonomous software cannot read how close or far the animal actually is because of its hopping motion. And that's a problem that will need to be fixed before self-driving cars can be rolled out down under.

Volvo has reportedly been working on a autonomous technology that can detect kangaroos for some time, according to a story on The Dodo from 2015. Animals can be at danger when highways intersect areas where they live. In Australia, kangaroos are at risk. Self-driving cars need to learn how to read not just other cars on the road to be safe—but any obstacles. Kangaroos too.

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