Auto news: Winter 2024
We wrap up the latest developments in the car world, including Volkswagen Australia's innovative approach to deterring kangaroos.
What's that, Skip?
Tasmania is known around the world for its many natural wonders, but something the state can be less proud of is the amount of native wildlife killed on its roads each year. Roadkill is a seemingly constant phenomenon wherever you drive throughout Tasmania, but a new Volkswagen Australia initiative may lead to a welcome reduction in vehicle and animal strikes. Developed by Volkswagen and DDB Group, in consultation with the University of Melbourne and WIRES, RooBadge is designed to help reduce collisions between vehicles and kangaroos, which reportedly make up 90 per cent of on-road wildlife accidents throughout Australia.
Credit: Michele Jackson
The device connects to an in-car app that calibrates a vehicle’s GPS coordinates with kangaroo distribution data, then uses a directional speaker, integrated into the circular Volkswagen badge of the Amarok ute, to send a high frequency audio signal that deters kangaroo species inhabiting the location. University of Melbourne Associate Professor Graeme Coulson says the device does something other kangaroo deterrents have been unable to achieve, producing different sounds based on GPS data to deter different kangaroo species.
Dr Helena Bender, whose research has been used extensively in the project, says the technology could also be adapted to alert deer. After three years of research and trials, RooBadge is set to move into stage four trials, involving kangaroos in the wild.
Visit the Volkswagen Australia website to find out more.
X marks the spot
Mercedes-Benz has conducted the world’s first X-ray analysis of a vehicle crash test, with the technology promising to provide new insights into what happens inside a vehicle – and to crash test dummies – during an accident.
The German luxury car maker says the proof-of-concept demonstration shows that high-speed X-ray technology can be used to visualise dynamic internal deformation processes, including previously invisible changes. Mercedes-Benz has been researching the use of X-ray technology in crash tests for several years, but says the breakthrough came via the use of a linear accelerator which is far more powerful than previously used X-ray flashes, and which generates a continuous stream of X-ray pulses resulting in up to 1000 images per second.
Credit: Mercedes-Benz AG – Communicati
Credit: Mercedes-Benz AG – Communicati
During the crash test, the beams shine through the bodywork – and any dummies – from above, with a flat detector located under the test vehicle serving as a digital image receiver. In the milliseconds of impact time, the X-ray system shoots around 100 still images which, when combined into a video, provide highly accurate insights into what happens inside vehicle components and in the dummy’s body during a crash.
The development is the latest in the car maker’s long history of crash test analysis, dating back to its first crash test in 1959. Mercedes-Benz conducts up to 900 crash tests each year and around 1700 sled tests at its Technology Centre for Vehicle Safety in Sindelfingen, Germany.
Visit the Mercedes-Benz website to find out more.