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Yamaha unveiled the "Motobot" at the Tokyo Motor Show on Wednesday. According to the company, it's an "autonomous motorcycle-riding humanoid robot built around a fusion of Yamaha's motorcycle and robotics technology".
It adds: "R&D is currently underway with the goal of developing the robot to ride an unmodified motorcycle on a racetrack at more than 200 km/h. The task of controlling the complex motions of a motorcycle at high speeds requires a variety of control systems that must function with a high degree of accuracy."
It remains to be seen if Motobot does ultimately surpass Rossi, who currently rides for Movistar Yamaha MotoGP. With one race left in the 2015 season, he's leading the title chase, with a seven point advantage over team-mate Jorge Lorenzo.
The world has been lacking motorcyclists with even less fear of death.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Monday November 02 2015, @05:07PM
Finally someone pointing out the obvious.
There is a lot of money available for deployment of autonomous motorcycles, because a gas tank gives your armed land drone hours of autonomy, access to tight and rugged areas, while carrying a pretty decent payload. Current robots in that category are either bulky or terribly slow.
The tank/armored carried of the future has a few light drones hovering around for vision, and a few motorcycle-sized land drones for taking out opponents in tight urban settings.