Watch: After cars, here is the prototype of the self-driving motorcycle
The BMW Motorrad’s R1200GS can start, accelerate and stop without a rider’s intervention.
Even as the juries of both experts and customers are still out on self-driving cars – what with occasional accidents taking place – the self-driving motorcycle is here as well.
Bike-makers are developing this version of two-wheelers, for both research and commercial purposes, with BMW releasing a prototype of its own.
BMW Motorrad provided a glimpse of a self-driving version of its R1200GS, which has been two years in the making. The company released a video of the bike, displaying its capabilities of accelerating and braking without needing human intervention.
Stefan Hans, a Motorrad safety engineer, explained in the video that the technology used in the prototype would be used to learn more about how safety features could be included in the manual range of bikes. The self-driving version is not expected to hit the road anytime soon.
“The prototype helps us to expand our knowledge about the vehicle’s dynamics so that we can classify the rider’s behaviour and determine if a future situation will become dangerous or not,” Hans said. “If so, we can inform, warn or intervene directly.”