Moving Vehicle Trials to Begin For Volkswagen’s Kangaroo Deterrent, Roobadge

A seemingly simple device that fits neatly over a Volkswagen’s front badge could save countless kangaroos, and regional Australian drivers, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage by emitting a warning signal to kangaroo species of a vehicle’s approach.

Developed over three years by Volkswagen Australia and the DDB Group in consultation with the University of Melbourne and WIRES, it is hoped that Volkswagen’s ‘RooBadge’ will help reduce collisions with kangaroos. These comprise some 90 per cent of on-road wildlife accidents in this country.

Connecting to an in-car app, RooBadge calibrates a vehicle's GPS coordinates with specifically developed kangaroo species distribution data. The ‘badge’ itself is a circular disc some 17cm in diameter that acts as protective shields, replacing the current Volkswagen roundel/badge.

This conveys a unique audio deterrent for the kangaroo species that inhabits the vehicle’s particular location across Australia.

A mixture of natural and artificial sounds is mixed in real time and projected in a high frequency audio signal from the front of the vehicle.

After extensive trials, permission has been obtained from The University of Melbourne Office of Research Ethics and Integrity to move into Stage Four trials, involving kangaroos in the wild. While supposed deterrent devices have existed for some time, none has been scientifically developed or proven.

“[RooBadge does] something no kangaroo deterrent has been able to do before,” Melbourne University’s Associate Professor Graeme Coulson said.

“It’s difficult to produce a single sound that will deter all kangaroos, because the species are different to each other. Using advancement in car technology we can change the sound deterrent by GPS location.