Bosch Talks About Future Motorcycle Safety Systems

Bosch has been at work on new safety systems for motorcycles that will make motorcycling safer. One of the things it is working on is a sliding mitigation research project. The goal of this project is to give motorcyclist a chance to right a bike that starts to slide on a road due to hazards like wet leaves, oil, or gravel. The system uses a sensor that detects sideways wheel slip and if a certain value is exceeded stored gas is used.

That stored gas would be released from a gas accumulator like those used in airbags in cars. The gas would flow into a tank adapter and is vented in a certain direction via a nozzle to provide reverse thrust and keep the motorcycle on track. Bosch is also working on radar-based assistance systems like what cars and trucks have today.

These systems would provide adaptive cruise control to help the motorcyclist keep a safe following distance between the car in front. A collision warning system would help reduce rear-end collisions and would help the rider at all speed ranges. When another vehicle is detected as being too close and the rider fails to react an optical and acoustic warning would be offered.

Another system is blind spot recognition to register objects in hard to see areas. Bosh already has a hand in ABS systems for motorcycles to prevent sliding from locked up brakes. Bosch is also working on motorcycle stability control that would monitor parameters like lean angle and adjust braking and acceleration intervention to suit riding status.

The goal of that system is to prevent the bike from lowsiding or righting itself suddenly and uncontrollably when braking in corners. Other tech includes motorcycle to car communications, emergency call, breakdown call, and information call capability.

SOURCE: Bosch