Volkswagen has a revealed a device called the RooBadge which it says could prevent collisions between vehicles and kangaroos. It’s a concealed device that plays a combination of natural and artificial sounds, mixed in real time, that are projected as a high-frequency audio signal. While there are devices out there that can be affixed to a vehicle to emit kangaroo-deterring sounds, the RooBadge is – as the name suggests – integrated where a Volkswagen’s badge would normally be.
“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. “We have worked on sounds that will be meaningful to Eastern Grey Kangaroos, things like dingo calls, alarm calls made by birds and the alarm thumps that kangaroos make to warn each other. We will then be able to tweak the sound for other species.