I swear, there’s gonna be self-driving versions of every single vehicle at some point. Is there a self-driving skateboard yet? It’s gonna happen, mark my words. Anyway, before that can happen, we need to make sure these things are consistently safe.
It’s for that reason that BMW has constructed an entire self-driving motorcycle. BMW is looking to improve the general safety of their line of motorcycles. Motorcyclists, after all, are 28 times more prone to fatal accidents than car-drivers. With the recent boom of safety features in cars, BMW wants to get those features onto a bike.
BMW engineers constructed a self-driving motorcycle equipped with a multitude of safety feature tests. This bike, besides moving forward on its own, can recognize and lean into oncoming turns, as well as avoid road hazards. It can even turn into a brake a raise its own kickstand.
However, this self-driving bike is not going to be marketed. Rather, the self-driver is intended to be a stress test for features like automatic breaks and lane holding, and whether or not such things can be applied to bikes.
It’s a tricky situation, since slamming the brakes on a car produces a much different effect to slamming them on a bike. The engineering team hopes these trials can yield some helpful data and, best case scenario, lead to these features’ regular implementation.
