YAMAHA MOTOROID: THE MOTORCYCLE THAT DRIVES ITSELF

Equipped with a balance control system, the Yamaha Motoroid is an electric bike that balances and controls itself. This rolling laboratory will serve to think about the bike of tomorrow which, we are told, will understand and anticipate.

The Japanese manufacturer Yamaha has unveiled a driverless motorcycle at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show (CES) whose main interest is to analyze the relationship between the machine and its driver. During a demonstration, this electric motorcycle concept called Motoroid showed that he knew how to stay on his feet while one of his designers, Kinji Asamura, was trying to make him fall. "The bike is a recent past, Motoroid is the future," said AFP spokesman John Boreland. The goal is to see what can be learned by more effectively connecting the bike to the human being. "
If he does not ride Motoroid, a robot placed at his side seems, him, straight out of a sci-fi film. He drove a classic sports bike at speeds exceeding 200 km / h on a test track. Called Motobot, it has been tested on a preprogrammed track because it can not "anticipate" a track it would discover, says Yamaha.

---The bike will understand things for you---

But the lessons learned from its use make it possible to establish that "human beings react much more quickly," says John Boreland. A true motorcycle rider is also much more apt to master subtle notions such as counter-steering (pushing on the handlebars in the opposite direction of the turn) or swaying.
Motoroid can also treat its driver. Small wings on the back of the saddle gently grip the pelvis when speed increases to better ensure a good position and reassure psychologically, ensures Mr. Boreland. "At one point or another, all of this will blend together and you'll be part of the bike that will understand things for you," he says.