Ready? Steady? Future!
Your dog is smart? Sure. Check out this bike. The future of driving. Safe, electric and most important: SMART.
German automaker unveiled this week a concept vehicle. But will it stay a concept or are we ready for the future?
Lets make a step back and start from the starting line. Since years automakers around the world are trying to predict the future of vehicles by inventing new technologies that can make our lives easier, safer and smarter. Elon Musk´s electric Tesla, Volkswagen´s and Audi´s self driving cars, Mercedes night detecting cameras,… this is only the beginning of a huge change in the way how we will move and communicate in the future.
I strongly believe that the automotive industry will change more in the next 10 to 15 years that it has in the last 50. This gives us the great opportunity to think about vehicles in a way that we have never thought before.
BMW did exactly this with their new concept bike, unveiled on an automotive show in Los Angeles (not only a smart city but also the city of blockbuster movies and superheroes, probably not an coincidence -German automaker marketing at its best)
So what makes this bike so special? It is a self-balancing bike, which means that you can ride it as safe as a car without falling over. Therefore the new system will protect the rider at any time. Late reaction of the pilot can lead very quickly to an accident with serious consequence, but not with the new intelligent technology, which is able to react before the driver can even think. In addition to the advantage of making it more difficult to fall off, the stabilization system also means that it doesn’t require a stand when parked, so it can be parked as easy as a car.
If this is not smart enough, the next thing is for sure:
“We do not envision autonomy on motorcycles,” said Edgar Heinrich, the design director of BMW’s motorcycle division. So self-driving motorcycle are not the future, since driving a bike is all about the experience going from one place, one city to another. The future of riding will be how your bike communicates with your surroundings. If it’s intelligent enough to communicate with your city, finding you the closest parking spot to the restaurant you want to go or simply navigating you through amazing mountain roads to enjoy a Sunday morning ride.
Please German automakers. Don´t stop.
