The automobile giant, Honda unveiled a new futuristic self-balancing bike this year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. This technology can assist newbie riders in balancing the bike in traffic at slow speed and in tight parking.
This self-balancing technology as the Japanese company calls it ‘Moto assist’ or ‘Riding assist’ is basically powered by the system that allows the motorcycle to self stabilize at slow speeds without the use of gyroscope or any additional weights. This is a digital system which essentially disengages the handle bar from the front fork, lengthening the wheel base and lowering the bike’s center of gravity when the bike is traveling at 3 miles-per-hour or lower. This digital system can also sense leaning and it rotates the wheel to either side to counteract just like we do when we are cycling at extremely low speed.
At company’s presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show, Lee Edmunds explained : “This would be for those who want to relax a little bit and not stress out about falling over, if they’re older or a little shorter in stature or the bike is heavier, this takes away the anxiety”.
The bike is Artificial Intelligence based which was also demonstrated that the tech is autonomous and it follows the owner through hallway at walking pace.
The Japanese company says that the ‘Riding assist’ technology is based on the algorithms of the Uni-Cub mobility scooter and their Asimo series of human shaped robots.
The main concept of the company is to envision a future where the vehicles will be able to communicate with each others and to eliminate the traffic congestion. This will increase the productivity for road users and will bring new type of experiences.
This tech will help a lot to old riders and short stature people in maneuvering heavy bikes like Honda’s Goldwing which is approximately 900 lbs. at low speeds. This tech will also help greatly in minimizing the road accidents. The claim of such companies is to make “accidents a thing of past”.
Although this bike is a prototype and Honda has not yet announced any plans to bring the ‘Riding assist’ to their production but there is news that Honda wont launch self driving before 2025. The people would love to see this sort of technology in future. Although it’s not completely an autonomous self driving motor cycle but it is a big step in that direction.
This is not the first time such that such self driving motorcycle has been unveiled. The company BMW has also revealed self-balancing concept motorcycles. But the style of Honda’s self-balancing motorcycle looks much more polished and trendy.
Honda has always focused on creating technologies that will help people and redefine their experience. This Honda’s Riding Assist motorcycle is a great investment in company’s robotics technology. Other such technologies are also under development including electric vehicle that transforms into robot taxis when it is not being used by the owner.