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posted by CoolHand on Thursday October 13 2016, @11:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the motorrad-uber-alles dept.

The motorcycle of the future is so safe riders can cruise without helmet—all of the thrills with none of the danger—according to BMW.

The German automaker unveiled on Tuesday its Motorrad Vision Next 100, a sleek, self-balancing prototype the company released as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations.

The zero-emissions bike has self-balancing wheels designed to stand upright even at a complete stop, stability that the company says will allow riders to forgo riding a helmet.

"Its self-balancing system will help protect the rider at any time," said Edgar Heinrich, the design director of BMW's motorcycle division. "Any late reaction from the driver will trigger and the vehicle will balance out."

"In the future, motorcycle riders will be able to enjoy riding without protective gear."

The TRON light cycle is almost here.


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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Francis on Thursday October 13 2016, @02:01PM

    by Francis (5544) on Thursday October 13 2016, @02:01PM (#413896)

    It's bullshit for a few reasons. One being that the enjoyment of the motorcycle is as much about actually controlling the bike as it is riding it.

    But, the other issue here is that keeping the bike upright is usually the easy thing. You can pretty much always keep the bike upright. The problem comes from when keeping the bike upright is at odds with keeping the bike in a safe path. Sometimes, you screw up or conditions change and you can't both keep the bike upright and keep the bike off of a collision course.

    They can probably make this work by having the bike ride around like a car, but that's not terribly fun and if something happens to cause the system to kick in, all of a sudden it's going to take a lot more effort to steer the bike. And when it stops, the steering goes back to normal and you'll likely oversteer.

    The whole thing seems like a bad idea unless you're going to go completely automated, and even then, we're probably at least 40 years away from the technology necessary to read and understand upcoming traction conditions on the road being good enough to make it happen.

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