Motorcycles are finally entering the advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) age, dipping both wheels into autonomous waters with the production debut of adaptive cruise control (ACC). On passenger cars, ACC appeared more than two decades ago, double the time it took ABS to migrate from four wheels to two. Tier-1 supplier Bosch played a large initial role in bringing both those features to automobiles, and is again leading the OEM technology adoption for motorcycles.

The slower pace of ADAS feature migration to the moto set is understandable, given the lack of powered/integrated controls and passenger restraints, and the far more extensive role of the rider in vehicle dynamics. Thanks to these unique parameters, active and intervening ADAS roles will remain limited for motorcycles in the near term, until rider monitoring and control systems advance enough to increase rider safety without jeopardizing it.

So far, this latest tech is being sequestered to the European makes. Ducati was the first to announce in late 2020 it would be applying the Bosch radar-based ACC system to the 2021 Multistrada V4, along with a rear-mounted radar unit to add blind-spot monitoring. BMW will feature the Bosch ACC setup on the 2021 R 1250 RT, and the system will equip the 2021 KTM 1290 Super Adventure S (not expected in the U.S. in its first model year). Kawasaki has previously announced it will be the first Japanese brand to make use of Bosch’s ACC tech in 2021, but it has not yet revealed a model slated for the tech.

Positive interventions
The big snag with any motorcycle ADAS feature is the challenge of assisting the pilot without making things worse. Riders keep themselves aboard a motorcycle by gripping the handlebars and bracing their legs against the machine. Any active intervention by a safety system that changes the attitude of the bike – without the rider being prepared – could be disastrous. No one wants a motorcycle “safety feature” that can unintentionally eject the rider from the saddle.

Thanks to Bosch’s motorcycle inertial measurement unit (IMU), manufacturers now have extraordinary amounts of real-time data about the attitude of the machine, but almost no data about the status of the human piloting the bike. “The technology right now is sitting at ABS with an IMU integration or traction control in an IMU integration, which is a very powerful system for a motorcycle,” explained Edward Fatzinger, forensic engineer, Momentum Engineering Corp., speaking at SAE’s 2020 WCX ADAS systems expert panel. “It's essentially stability control, and to me, that's an advanced driver-assist platform.”

“The IMU is an integral component of the system and the ABS and MSC [stability] functionality we've been implementing for many years in motorcycles,” explained Justin Magri, technical project manager for two-wheel and powersports business for Bosch North America. “Drawing from that experience in the IMU and understanding the position of the vehicle allows us to utilize that into the ARAS, what we call Advanced Rider Assistant Systems.”

IMU-enabled setups are remarkably effective at managing events initiated by the rider. But unlike mitigating excessive throttle or braking input, where the system is reacting to a fully engaged pilot and trying to assist based on intention, ADAS-like automatic responses could easily catch a rider unprepared.

“Autonomous emergency braking on motorcycles is going to be quite difficult to achieve,” Fatzinger noted, adding that determining rider position will be the big challenge for advancing ADAS functionality. “The rider has to be in a ready position to brace for the deceleration. There's going to have to be force sensors in the hand grips to tell the system, ‘Hey, the rider's reacting and applying force to the handlebars.’ It's not like a car where the person's seat-belted in, so the emergency-braking realm is going to be pretty far off,” he explained.

According to Matt Peters, lead application engineer for advanced rider systems for Bosch North America, motorcycle engine character and leaning dynamics also make things interesting for the new ACC setup. “There's added challenges understanding exactly the position of all the targets due to the moving rotation of the radar due to roll angle,” he said. “In addition, there's a lot of vibration in the motorcycle which we need to filter in order to have an accurate course prediction. Course prediction really is the true underlying technology behind the motorcycle radar assistance.”

Bosch envisions its motorcycle technology progression as a growing shield. “The first level of that shield is vehicle stability, where we have ABS and MSC. The next layer of that shield we're working on now is ARAS functions and more of a predictive and safe comfort level. Going further out, our goal is connectivity to the surrounding environment, which as more vehicles become automated is going to be important,” Magri said. “We're all motorcycle riders in our group, so I take this pretty personally,” he added.

Alternative awareness
Until systems are in place to determine when a rider is prepared for a significant intervention, motorcyclists should get ready to be bombarded with alerts. Israeli startup Ride Vision is taking a wholly visual approach, using an AI-enabled, camera-based system to create what it bills as “collision-aversion technology” (CAT), promising 360°coverage enabled by two wide-field lenses. The system is designed to detect forward collisions, blind spots, merging traffic and rear collision threats.

The Ride Vision hardware is comprised of two wide-angle HD cameras mounted on the front and rear of the motorcycle, visual-alert indicators placed on the mirrors and an onboard computing unit. The system is designed to help riders maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of them, regardless of pace, with collision alerts adapting to road conditions, time to impact and vehicle speed.

Ride Vision uses a combination of image recognition and predictive-vision AI algorithms to supply its visual alerts. It claims its camera-based system (in action, below) has several advantages over fixed radar-based setups, including the ability to recognize stationary vehicles and being unaffected by motorcycle lean angles, which can reduce radar range. According to Ride Vision, radar-based systems can be affected by lean-angles as narrow as 14°, reducing front-collision warnings in situations such as navigating a roundabout.

Ride Vision is already building out its industry connections, having announced a partnership with Continental AG, whose head of ADAS advanced engineering, Christian Weber, sits on Ride Vision’s advisory board. This board also includes former BMW-Motorrad executive VP of engineering Karl Viktor Schaller and e-superbike builder Energica’s CEO Livia Cevolini. Ride Vision has yet to announce an OEM partnership, but it’s begun offering an aftermarket setup that can be retrofitted to nearly any motorcycle.

“Ride Vision is already in the working process with several OEMs and Tier 1s such as Continental AG to employ Ride Vision's tech directly,” explained Uri Lavi, CEO and co-founder of Ride Vision, offering the company’s vision approach as the best choice of ADAS systems that could further broaden safety and experience features.

Engaging the rider
Unlike OEM-integrated setups, an aftermarket alert system cannot employ motorcycle systems such as braking and throttle. Control inputs tend to get a rider’s attention quickly, but there are other options. “Obviously, motorcycles can be loud quite often, so I don't know if sound's going to work. A visible warning might be a little distracting to the rider,” Fatzinger offered. “I like the haptic area – vibrate to seat, vibrate to hand grips – and I think it would be the most effective.”

According to Ride Vision’s Lavi, its extensive human machine interface (HMI) research led them to visual cues as the most intuitive and effective alerts. “Visual language is simple, easy to grasp – but retains the riders' focus on the road. Other alerts, such as haptic and audio alerts resulted in inability to respond or created too much overload/disturbance to the rider. Having said that,” Lavi noted, “Ride Vision is working with its OEM/Tier-1 partners – both motorcycle and helmet manufacturers – to add more alerts to enrich the possibilities without compromising on riders' focus on the road.”

“Things that we're still working on, ongoing research, [is] for sensing rider position and things of that nature,” Bosch’s Peters explained. “You could, in theory, have sensors in the handlebars to understand whether or not the rider currently has hands on the bars. There's logic just by understanding if the rider's swerving back and forth in the lane, what their intention is. It's an ongoing evolution of trying to better predict what the rider's doing, what the vehicle's doing, and using our innovation with logic to come up with solutions to keep the rider safe.”

With autonomous features rapidly advancing on the automotive side, there’s no lack of technology ready to be applied to motorcycles. The trick will be adapting it to a bike’s unique physics and controls. “It's not a question of if, it's a question of when,” Fatzinger said of motorcycles’ ADAS future. “Manufacturers are really pushing to the brink of ADAS, classic ADAS stuff for motorcycles. The technology is developed. It's just a matter of when it's going to get implemented.”