BMW Shows Off Self Driving Motorcycle

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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BMW posted a video of a motorcycle that starts up, accelerates, turns, and stops all by itself. The bike was developed by a team lead by graduate engineer Stefan Hans, and features other technical innovations like a 3D printed frame and carbon components derived from BMW's motorcycle racing division.

Check out the video here.

With this forward-thinking development, BMW Motorrad, as a driver for technical innovations in the field of motorcycling, is by no means aiming for a completely independent motorbike. Rather, the underlying technology should serve as a platform for development of future systems and functions to make motorcycling even safer, more comfortable and increase the riding pleasure. The aim of the prototype is to gather additional knowledge with regards driving dynamics in order to detect dangerous situations early on and thus support the driver with appropriate safety systems while turning at intersections or when braking suddenly, for example.
 
That is pretty damn cool. A brilliant way to test the limits of a moving vehicle without risking death to a test driver.
 
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Didn't a bunch of students to a better job of this about 10 years ago for the Darpa challenge?


Hold my beer.
 
Honda did a much better job of this over a year ago. The BMW has to be held up, more or less it only steers the bike. Honda can do that, but it can also self balance, with or without a rider, and even has a follow me mode. Not to mention the bike looks pretty good as well. Most riders have issues with LOW speed riding, not at normal road way speeds.

 
They will need to make it obnoxiously loud, so stupid people driving cars can hear it coming.
So BMW should call upon the Hells Angels chapter in Stuttgart and they will have them set in no time, and they will gladly do it cuz i am sure HA people drive BMW cars in the winter time.
 
BlueFireIce said:
Honda did a much better job of this over a year ago. The BMW has to be held up, more or less it only steers the bike. Honda can do that, but it can also self balance, with or without a rider, and even has a follow me mode. Not to mention the bike looks pretty good as well. Most riders have issues with LOW speed riding, not at normal road way speeds.

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Came here to say this...well I don't know about much better (haven't watched the bmw vid yet), but they did a pretty good job.
 
Nobu said:
Came here to say this...well I don't know about much better (haven't watched the bmw vid yet), but they did a pretty good job.
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If you watch the BMW video, it has the kick stand down the whole time to rest on for when it stops, when it takes off, someone has to hold it exactly upright for it to take off, I am assuming because it needs the gyroscopic forces of the wheels moving to keep it up while driving, as it doesn't seem to have any balance system built in. If BMW is just about self driving only, then MotoBot is much more impressive with the speeds it can do.
 
I mean the tech is cool and all, but I wouldn't want anything like that on a bike I'm actually riding. When it comes time to make a split second decision and you decide to do something different than the bike, you're probably going to end up off the bike. If I didn't feel comfortable having to make those decisions, I'd stay the hell off a motorcycle.
 
Haven't we had remote control motorcycles for over a decade? I don't see the big deal. This is just scaled up. I wouldn't want to drive a motorcycle that fights me for control.
 
Isn't the point of riding a motorcycle to do something dangerous? This completely defeats the purpose of even having one.
 
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