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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.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Francis on Thursday October 13 2016, @02:08PM
Basically the only time when it would make sense to lay the bike down intentionally is if you've run out of room and desperately need to get under something. Modern tires are rather grippy and even when they're worn down they still provide more traction than you'd get from the plastic and metal on the sides of the bike.
But, barring the case where, you're running out of space and desperately need to get under a moose, laying it down doesn't do you any good. Even then, it's a bad idea because you're betting that you can guess where the moose is going to be at the very last moment and you're accepting some additional momentum at the time of impact if you wind up hitting it.
Back in olden times when you might only have one drum brake on the rear wheel, it probably did make sense at times to lay the bike down so you got better use of the front end as a bumper, but brake and tire technology have vastly improved since then. Even with cars, it used to be more reliable to run into things at times because those brakes also sucked.