Volvo's Driverless Cars 'Confused' by Kangaroos (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Volvo's self-driving technology is struggling to identify kangaroos in the road. The Swedish car-maker's 2017 S90 and XC90 models use its Large Animal Detection system to monitor the road for deer, elk and caribou. But the way kangaroos move confuses it. "We've noticed with the kangaroo being in mid-flight when it's in the air, it actually looks like it's further away, then it lands and it looks closer," its Australia technical manager said. But the problem would not delay the rollout of driverless cars in the country, David Pickett added.

Comments

Kangaroo vs White-Tailed Deer

[damn_registrars]

The White-Tailed Deer (and likely other related species - I'm only personally familiar with this one) moves in a bounding manner, often with all four legs off the ground. What makes it that much different from the kangaroo in the eyes of the driverless car? Is it at in the height difference in terms of on the ground versus not on the ground?

Re:Kangaroo vs White-Tailed Deer

[Dutch Gun]

I know it's passé to read TFA, but:

Volvo's safety engineers began filming kangaroos' roadside behaviour in a nationally recognised hotspot for collisions in 2015.

There's a picture of a Volvo vehicle with "Kangaroo detection data collection vehicle" printed on its side.

So... they're working on it, with good training data.