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BMW is teaching this motorcycle to drive itself — so it can help save lives (video)

JacksinPA

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https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/scienc...e-drive-itself-so-it-can-help-save-ncna910801

BMW says its autonomous vehicle will help boost the safety and handling of conventional motorcycles.

Self-driving cars have quickly moved from a far-out idea to a here-and-now reality. Now one German automaker has built a self-driving motorcycle — one that can start, accelerate, steer and brake to stop, all without a rider.

No one is looking to fill the roads with riderless motorcycles. Rather, BMW sees its autonomous motorcycle as a test bed for technologies that would improve the safety and handling of conventional motorcycles.
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Very neat stuff: self-driving, autonomous motorcycle. Imagine cruise-control on a long cross-country bike ride?
 

I personally don’t see the appeal in that in the same way I see the appeal with a car. Not that researching the technology doesn’t have merit.
 

Speaking as someone who misspent much of his youth on motorcycles I know now that I've lived one year too long.
 

Defeats the entire purpose of a motorcycle; if the destination is the goal, take a train or a plane. I have ridden since 1969; don’t ride as much as I used to, but a self-driving bike makes no sense.......other than the tech advances, as prior posters have noted.
 
I could see it on a long stretch of hiway but not city driving or congested freeways.

 

I already have cruise control on my bike. Technology is fine, so long as it does not become so techie that one loses touch with why people ride.
 
Casper said:
I already have cruise control on my bike. Technology is fine, so long as it does not become so techie that one loses touch with why people ride.
Click to expand...

I'm also referring to the new gadgetry that they're putting in big SUVs that maintain lanes automatically.
 
JacksinPA said:
I'm also referring to the new gadgetry that they're putting in big SUVs that maintain lanes automatically.
Click to expand...

Too many people do not focus enough attention to driving now; more tech means less attention and a false sense of security, imo. When/if the tech fails and there is an accident, where will the lawyers go?
 
JacksinPA said:
I'm also referring to the new gadgetry that they're putting in big SUVs that maintain lanes automatically.
Click to expand...

If you ride and are that inattentive you are most likely already an organ donor and just don't know it yet.
 

It's reminiscent of Levandowski's Ghostrider circa 2004. It's certainly novel, but I didn't see the point then and I don't see the point now. Publicity? Autonomous driving is incredibly hard. Why make the problem harder with a vehicle with a smaller payload, smaller sensor spread, smaller computational package, and more complicated dynamics? Balancing the bike isn't really the issue. However countersteering adds unnecessary complexity to the low level path planner and the catastrophic results of losing traction place much higher requirements on forward facing sensors, particularly with respect to road surface. The vehicle dynamics of a motorcycle are inherently more stateful that that of a car. If an autonomous car system jerks the car to the left the driver will have more time and ability to correct their path than if an autonomous motorcycle suddenly leans into a turn. Furthermore each sensor's FoV will be altered drastically wrt roll. This makes building a coherent image of the world far more difficult.

So sure it's interesting, and maybe they'll be able to develop a few rider assist features, but I wouldn't expect a ton from it.
 
Casper said:
If you ride and are that inattentive you are most likely already an organ donor and just don't know it yet.
Click to expand...

I met a burn surgeon from the Allentown, PA hospital. He calls motorcycles 'donorcycles' because the accident victims are still alive & ready to have their organs harvested when they arrive in the ER.
 
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