Tech special: Bikes could soon be impossible to crash
How automated safety systems are making their way from cars to bikes
Manufacturers are in a race to make collisions a thing of the past with new tech that allow bikes to sense and communicate with other vehicles and even force them to take evasive action.
News of vehicles being able to communicate with each other follows recent announcements about hazard-sensing radar and means we could see anti-crash rider aids on bikes within two years. German multi-national Bosch are leading the way with management board member Dr Dirk Hoheisel saying: “This is the next step along the path toward accident-free riding; one that doesn’t reduce enjoyment and doesn’t take away responsibility.”
Stage one: radar
Ducati and KTM are at the forefront of this technology, developed in conjunction with Bosch. We’ll see it in 2020, but the tech isn’t that new; cars have been using it for 20 years. Radar constantly monitors a bike’s position in relation to roadside furniture and other vehicles, so it can then use that information to influence and inform the rider.
Expect the first semi-autonomous system to be adaptive cruise control. The tech uses radar to monitor distances between all the vehicles around the bike and can adjust the throttle to maintain a safe gap from the vehicle in front and potentially has the capability to brake if it senses a danger. Ducati and KTM are also developing a forward collision detection system that will give an audible warning when it first senses danger during normal riding but also has the potential to put the brakes on. Meanwhile, the use of two radar units up front delivers the potential for blind-spot warning systems which would deliver an alert, for example, by flashing a symbol on the bike’s mirror.
Stage two: inter-vehicle communication
Last week Ducati and Audi performed a controlled collision
‘It’s a step along the path to accidentfree riding’
DR DIRK HOHEISEL, BOSCH
avoidance using two cars and a Multistrada. All the vehicles were equipped with a system that allows them to communicate with each other. Dubbed Cellular Vehicle-toEverything technology (C-V2X), it works on the emerging 5G mobile band and builds up a picture of all the vehicles in the vicinity. BMW have also showcased this tech. Ducati and Audi’s trial showed off two types of assistance. The first was Intersection Collision Warning, where a car with C-V2X pulls out from a junction and avoids hitting a bike which has the right of way. The second was Across Traffic Turn Collision Risk Warning, in which a vehicle avoids a left-turn collision with a motorcycle.
It can be used to provide warnings for drivers, which is what occurred in Ducati’s demo last week, but as vehicle autonomy grows, there will be the potential for a car’s control system to take over to avoid a collision before the driver even knows there is a problem.