Radar cruises into group rides
Love riding with your friends? Honda’s new cruise control could be for you...
For a company who have forged their reputation on being at the cutting-edge of motorcycle technology, Honda have been on the back foot when it comes to the latest generation of radar-assisted safety and cruise control kit.
Radar-based adaptive cruise control (ACC) can already be found on Ducati, BMW, Kawasaki, KTM and Yamaha machinery. Most of the major players have kit that can monitor the speed of vehicles ahead and adjust the throttle and brakes to maintain a consistent distance without any input from the rider.
But the current generation all use versions of the same Bosch-made hardware, itself derived from car technology, and while Honda are a step behind at the moment, their focus is on making an ACC system that’s specifically for bikes and the way they’re used.
Two-wheeled focus
Unsurprisingly, the radar cruise control systems developed for cars are focused on the notion of a vehicle following in the wheeltracks of the one ahead.
Cars travel line-astern within their lanes and ACC systems developed for them keep a safe distance between vehicles. But when motorcyclists ride in groups we don’t tend to adopt that pattern. Instead, it’s natural – and sensible – to take on a staggered approach within a lane - riding closer to the next bike without sacrificing stopping distance.
Honda’s ACC is being developed to consider exactly that pattern, allowing you to ‘lock on’ to a lead bike that’s offset to one side, and even allowing a choice of two ‘platooning’ modes, as described in a detailed new patent application.
In development
The Honda design appears to be well advanced and they have already developed the icons they intend to use on a bike’s TFT dash to show the system’s status.
As well as a front-facing radar, it incorporates a front camera and a rear radar, allowing it to monitor vehicles ahead – identifying the difference between a bike and a car – and to monitor the position of a bike behind if you’re in a group.
The first ‘platooning mode’ is intended for when you’re following two bikes, allowing the system to monitor both of them.
It can then use either the bike directly in front – so two bikes ahead in the zigzag pattern on the road – to set its speed, or lock onto the bike that’s closest but offset to one side or the other, as its guide.
The second platooning mode brings the rear radar into play, monitoring the position of a bike behind as well as in front if you’re in the middle of a group of three or
‘The platooning mode allows for group rides’
more motorcycles on a rideout.
In this instance, if you slow down and draw nearly level with the bike that’s offset ahead of you – so it falls out of the radar and camera’s fields of view – the system monitors the bike behind to estimate the speed and position of the one that you’re riding alongside.
Same as before
On top of these abilities, the system can also work as a normal ACC, following a car or other vehicle that takes up the whole lane ahead, or as a conventional, passive cruise control system.
When will it be launched? That’s not clear yet but given the rate of development and Honda’s need to catch up with rivals in the radarassisted cruise control field, it’s likely to be sooner rather than later.