Deer Caught in the Headlights? Your Car May Soon See Them<br />Volvo, the Swedish automaker, started equipping several 2017 models, like its XC90 sport utility vehicle, with software<br />that allows its forward-looking radar and cameras to identify large deer entering or crossing a roadway.<br />“The radar detects if there’s an object and the camera confirms it is a deer by comparing what<br />it sees to thousands of images of large animals,” said Jim Nichols, a Volvo spokesman.<br />If no action is taken, the car automatically slows or stops.”<br />Audi will introduce a new A8 sedan this summer with radar and other sensors<br />that should stop the car from hitting large animals if they are standing in the roadway.<br />“I didn’t see any fur on the bumper so I guess I didn’t hit him, but it was close.”<br />Automakers have already developed technologies to prevent cars from crashing into other vehicles<br />and to recognize pedestrians entering and crossing a roadway.<br />Toyota’s technology is based on more than three years of research on the back roads of Virginia<br />and Montana, a stint at a deer sanctuary in Michigan, and months of crunching data from studies of car and deer encounters.<br />“All of a sudden I see this little blip dart out, and it’s a little one running after the mother,” Mr. LaPointe said.
