Let’s start by saying that autonomous motorcycling isn’t here to take your fun from riding a motorcycle… at least for now!
What AB Dynamics has created is a way for car makers to test their driverless systems to react and interact with motorcycles on the road, improving safety, and ultimately saving motorcyclists lives.
Driverless cars are making their way into our roads, and nowadays it seems that every car maker is trying to develop a system that allows for the driver to almost take no action while on the driver seat, waiting to reach the destination.
But having an almost autonomous car on the road might seem good for some, but for some road users, like motorcyclists, this isn’t good news at all.
Motorcycles behave in a completely different way than cars while on the road, the whole dynamic of riding a bike makes them much more unpredictable and driverless cars sensors are having a lot of trouble to detect motorcycles, making the car react in a dangerous way.
Up until now, car makers used to rely on “controlled soft targets” that simulated motorcycles to develop the technology for driverless cars, but those weren’t really all that effective, being too slow and predictable.
Now, AB Dynamics have come up with the solution for this problem: a remote controlled motorcycle!
Using a BMW C1 as test mule, AB Dynamics installed their RC software on the scooter and then they can use the bike to approach driverless cars and make the systems on the cars learn how a motorcycle behaves. And because this scooter doesn’t need a rider to be controlled, there’s no danger of someone getting hurt in the process!
Dr. Richard Simpson, senior systems engineer at AB Dynamics, believes that the C1 autonomous scooter is only the beginning of this technology, and that over time they’ll be able to develop more powerful motorcycles that won’t need rider intervention and that will help car makers develop their driverless cars even further.