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Yamaha wants you to stay safe on your motorcycle, and they’re putting in new research towards that end. One of the new technologies from this work is the Advanced Motorcycle Stability Assist System (AMSAS), seen here on display at the company’s 2022 Safety Vision and Technology Briefing.
The tech here is not intended to keep your motorcycle upright at normal riding speeds; physics does that job for you. Instead the AMSAS system is intended to kick in at walking speeds, where Yamaha says humans find it more difficult to control a motorcycle. When the system activates, an electric motor on the bike’s front wheel and another in the steering head will work in conjunction to keep the machine balanced. Note that this modified R3 test mule does not have a standard engine installed—there is no drivechain. Instead, that motor in the front wheel pulls the motorcycle forward, while the steering head motor makes small inputs to keep the bike moving along.
A press release on Yamaha’s website goes much deeper into the company’s plan for safer motorcycles in the future, opening with these lines:
For Greater Safety in Mobility
Our initiatives to assist safety with Technologies, User Skills, and Connectivity to achieve our Jin-Ki Kanno × Jin-Ki Anzen Safety Vision
Jin-Ki Kanno is Yamaha Motor’s exclusive development ideal. Technology born from Jin-Ki Kanno seeks to deliver users the seductive exhilaration felt when they truly become one with their machine. Quantifying and fine-tuning this kind of exciting performance, which we call Kanno Seino, and then building it into our products is a solid part of our Yamaha Monozukuri framework, and this development style permeates all of our workplaces.
Jin-Ki Anzen expresses our belief that having people and machines work together in complementary ways can make more sophisticated safety skills and technologies possible. In order to create a safer world of personal mobility, Yamaha Motor will begin working to enhance the human–machine relationship in ways that bring growth and advancements to both.
Centering our efforts to elevate safety on technologies, user skills, and connectivity, the Jin-Ki Kanno × Jin-Ki Anzen Safety Vision expresses Yamaha Motor’s unique approach to create a world free of accidents together with our customers, in which users can experience the joy and Kando* that comes from progressing their own skills and abilities while having fun at the same time.
*Kando is a Japanese word for the simultaneous feelings of deep satisfaction and intense excitement that we experience when we encounter something of exceptional value.
An enhanced human-machine relationship that brings “growth and advancements” to both? Does that mean the motorcycle AI will learn riding tips from its human pilot?
A few lines further down the release:
Accidents Occur in a Flash and Successful Avoidance Takes Skill and Knowledge
From the moment the cause of a future motorcycle-related accident arises, 70% of them occur within just two seconds afterwards. We also know that the majority of riders are currently unable to make the right maneuvers to prevent the accident in such a short span of time. Additionally, it is no easy feat for a rider to do this properly while facing imminent danger. In these kinds of situations, instead of solely relying on user decision and skill to perform the right evasive maneuvers, it is essential that we try to help with rider-assistive technologies.
And there is the reasoning behind this autonomous riding technology: Yamaha knows many riders don’t have the skill to avoid crashes, so they’re developing AI that can take over.
If you feel like sorting through more paragraphs of internal corporatespeak mixed with themes of safety, you can see Yamaha’s full write-up here.
We will leave you with these questions: Would you want this sort of low-speed AI control on your motorcycle? Maybe on a street bike, if not a dirt bike? What do you think this says about the future of motorcycling?
The post Yamaha’s Self-Balancing Stability Assist: Would You Want It? appeared first on Adventure Rider.
