To many, autonomous cars are very, very scary. When
compared to a self-riding motorcycle, however, cars that drive themselves seem
exceptionally safe and comforting. Leading bike manufacturers have
been working on self-riding prototypes for a number of years now, including
Yamaha with its racer designed to be faster than Valentino Rossi. Back in
September 2018, BMW threw its hat into the race with the unveiling of a bespoke
R1200GS that can be controlled without a human rider. The world recently had a
chance to see the spooky bike at CES 2019 in Las Vegas.
After checking out the clip below, you may ask
yourself, who in the world would ride an autonomous motorcycle? Whereas
self-driving cars can easily and safely ferry passengers around in comfort,
sitting on a motorcycle that operates itself holds absolutely no appeal.
Fortunately, BMW doesn’t intend on bringing such a bike to production.
Instead, BMW says that exceptionally advanced
R1200GS has been developed to improve the safety features of upcoming models.
According to the company, future technologies will allow its motorcycles to
classify a rider’s behavior and determine a dangerous situation before anything
happens. If needed, the motorcycle could inform or warn the rider and in dire
situations, even intervene to avoid an accident. Slightly more conventional
systems like adaptive cruise control and lane-keeping assist could also be used
by bikes next decade.
For the most part, BMW’s self-riding R1200GS looks
like a relatively normal bike. However, the bike features side panniers laden
with computers to ensure the prototype doesn’t topple over and is actually able
to control itself.
