Technology – Hitting the journalistic newsstands this week was the announcement from Ducati with its constant drive towards innovation, that the Bologna-based manufacturer is defining its safety strategy until 2025. This will see the implementation in the short term of ARAS (Advanced Rider Assistance Systems) on their motorcycles, or as has been picked up, Ducati is fitting a radar to their bikes.
We have previously reported on systems such as ARAS as fitted in cars, which was tied in with the ongoing strife of implementing full car automation. How all these systems on tests on public roads have been reacting with motorcycles and riders, which is not great at the moment.
Meanwhile in the same week, the Federation of European Motorcyclists Associations (FEMA) General Secretary, Dolf Willingers in his latest blog asks, “Will European measures mean more safety for motorcyclists?” as he looks at the European Parliaments safety regulations. While Dolf comments that, “Motorcycle safety is not high on the agenda. For many policy makers motorcyclists are a rare breed that use smelly and loud machines for their leisure.” he mentions that, “The European Parliament adopted our demand that automatic emergency braking assistants on cars (Motorcycle Minds – part of the range of ADAS – Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) should also detect motorcyclists.”
Ducati at the Forefront
Ducati says that it has always been at the forefront regards safety, stating that they are, “The only motorcycle manufacturer world-wide to have a vehicle able to interact with the jacket-integrated D|air® system, and the first company in the industry to equip a heritage/classic model, the Ducati Scrambler 1100, with the ABS Cornering system.”
Ducati say that the bias of their many-sided strategic plan is the implementation, in the short term, of ARAS (Advanced Rider Assistance Systems) on Ducati motorcycles.
They state that, “Advanced assistance systems increase rider safety levels via a number of sensors, including radars. These, in particular, are able to provide feedback on the surrounding environment – helping to prevent possible collisions with obstacles or other vehicles by alerting the rider.”
Ducati go on to say that:
Ducati started developing these systems as early as 2016, in conjunction with the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano University.
The study has led to the development of a warning system based on a rear radar, able to identify and point out vehicles present in the “blind spot” (i.e. the section of the road not visible either directly or in the rear-view mirror), or traffic approaching at high speed from behind.
To highlight the technical and scientific value of this research project, developed by Ducati employees, University researchers and undergraduates, in May 2017 a patent application was filed concerning the system control algorithms, and a Scientific Publication was presented at the IEEE – Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV) on June 11-14, 2017, at Redondo Beach, CA, USA.
Again in 2017, the Italian manufacturers selected a primary technological partner to ensure system suitability for production – by completing the package with a second radar sensor positioned at the front. The purpose of this device will be to manage the adaptive cruise control, allowing a given distance (which can be set by the user) to be maintained from the vehicle in front, and warning the rider of any risks of distraction-related head-on collisions.
All these systems, together with an advanced user interface designed to alert the rider to any existing dangers, will be available on one of the Ducati models coming in 2020.
As regards their strategy “Safety Road Map 2025” Ducati state that the first actual step has already been implemented and includes the progressive extension of Bosch ABS Cornering to the whole product range.
Ducati is the third manufacturer to fit this Bosch system, following KTM and BMW – MSC motorcycle stability control for all classes of bike – 2014 – where, “This system enhances active braking ensuring top-level safety. If standard ABS ensures control of tyre grip loss during braking only when the motorcycle is travelling in a straight line, the more advanced Cornering version allows full braking grip control even when cornering, effectively ruling out the risk of falling during the delicate corner-entry phase. Ducati has confirmed its safety strategy value by introducing the Bosch ABS Cornering system also in its Ducati Scrambler family – fitting it to the top-of-the-range version, the 1100.”
Other parts of this road safety technology by Ducati in includes:
Additionally, in 2014, Ducati introduced the only motorcycle in the world able to interact with the Airbag jacket, the Multistrada 1200 D|air® .
This system, now available on Ducati’s Multistrada 1260 D|air®, is designed to deploy in just 45 milliseconds (much faster than a stand-alone system), protecting both the rider’s and passenger’s exposed body parts by absorbing impact forces via an airbag expertly built into the rider’s jacket by Dainese.
The airbag is capable of split-second inflation before the rider and possibly passenger collide with the obstacle and is intelligent enough to sense the difference between a potentially dangerous accident and a low-speed incident or a stationary motorcycle simply falling over.
Leaving aside any rhetoric of rider’s choice or mandating these system, that could possibly remove control from riders to remote operations and thus taking away the pleasure, the passion and way of life of riding. It seems that one aspect of this automated technology for all vehicles has an aspect of not interacting with motorcycles, thus a solution is that as always, we will have to look out for ourselves and this means motorcycles fitted with the technology may help riders to do just that.
Future Culture
While looking at these article from Ducati and FEMA we picked up an exclusive interview on the – 2025 AD The Automated Driving Community – website with BMW’s expert Dr Dirk Wisselmann who lays out the driverless car strategy of the German company – BMW expert: “There won’t be any acceptance problems with autonomous driving”
With interesting questions and answers from, real-world testing, simulation testing, automated vehicles seen as “The Ultimate Driving Machine” coupled with the remaining “Sheer driving pleasure”
However most interesting is the question from 2015 AD and the reply:
2025AD: In the future, how will you personally spend your free time in your self-driving BMW?
Wisselmann: I’m an enthusiastic motorcycle rider and I‘m dreaming about a fully automated BMW car which is able to transport me and my oldtimer-racing BMW to a race track so I can do some fast laps – on my own.
So right on queue is a film project in production from the United States entitled – The Last Motorcycle On Earth pitching a motorcycle riding doomsday banned scenario.
The project is promoted as, “A dramatic series about a vintage motorcycle collector and bike builder, Conrad Mendel, as he grapples with a new world of technology that threatens to destroy his passion and way of life.
After spending a lifetime collecting, racing, and building motorcycles, Conrad watches as the United States seems poised to turn away from a culture of individual freedom– the right and ability to travel anywhere, anytime– to one where passengers ride in a robot vehicle, trusting in technology to safely carry them to a destination.
This series was devised by looking at authoritarian governments around the world and their real-world actions against motorcycles– banning them inside major Chinese cities, laws against customizing motorcycles in Singapore– and many others.
Researching the rapid shift from horse-drawn to motorized transportation in the early 1900s it is clear that a tipping point for long-established forms of transportation– and even entire cultures– can be reached very quickly. The current wave of news about self-driving and autonomous cars is impossible to ignore.”
Amen to that!
Original Sources – Ducati – A Ducati featuring front and rear radar already in the pipeline for 2020 – FEMA – Will European measures mean more safety for motorcyclists? – BMW expert: “There won’t be any acceptance problems with autonomous driving”
Information – Motorcycle Minds Automation
https://youtu.be/Ms6S6m8Oul4
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