Five emerging technologies that could impact motorcycles

1. Qoros camless engine
Chinese carmaker Qoros has found a way to create an internal combustion engine that does away with the heavy and rather mechanically mundane camshaft. Because of the very shape of camshaft lobes which actuate the opening and closing of the engine’s valves, there’s always an inefficiency of being not-quite opened or closed. So Qoros has done away with the camshaft altogether and instead employs electro-hydraulic pneumatic actuators which have plenty of benefits over the ageing camshaft — some which could prove especially beneficial for motorcycles. Firstly, the engine isn’t having to manhandle a heavy camshaft and therefore requires less energy; energy which can be directed to other places. Each valve is also being actuated independently so the notion of variable valve timing all of a sudden becomes endless. The inefficiencies have now gone, so that means far better fuel economy. And most importantly, using the camless technology means engine builders can extract more power from a more compact package, and that is music to a motorcycle maker’s ears.

2. BeBop car seat sensors
Californian-based company BeBop has come up with an idea to embed car seats with a series of sensors in a bid to make them smarter than they already are. Compared to now, where your car seat senses weight and alerts you if the seatbelt hasn’t been plugged in, the BeBop system can sense not only the height of the driver or passenger, but also how the person is sitting. What it means to BeBop is it can more accurately predict how, when and where to deploy its airbags for better passenger protection in the event of an accident. But it has enormous potential for riders, too. The sensors can provide information in great detail; whether the passengers have their legs crossed, for example, or whether the passenger is turned and looking towards the back seat of the car. For a rider, the motorcycle's sophisticated electronics system, which already includes real-time lean-angle sensors, could actually be given a heads up and know what’s coming before it arrives simply by sensing where the rider has shifted his or her weight to, and the severity of such, in the lead up to a corner.  

3. Easy-jet shoes
How many times have you had to pull over, check and memorise directions on your phone, zip it back into your jacket pocket before having to pull over in a few minutes’ time and do it all over again? If you don’t have a handlebar-mounted phone holder or don’t like the distraction it proposes, then new technology from Britain’s budget airline EasyJet may hold the answer. The airline has developed a pair of smart shoes which connects to a smartphone via bluetooth and uses built-in vibration sensors in either shoe to direct EasyJet customers around new and unfamiliar cities. In a motorcycle application, it could make heads-up displays appear quite distracting. If the technology was applied to motorcycle-specific boots, not only would riders be more inclined to wear proper footwear but in terms of directions and other information, you could let your boots do the talking which frees up your eyes to watch where you’re going.

4. Tesla’s Bioweapon Defense Mode
There’s not many, but if there was one downside to commuting on a motorcycle in congested cities, it’s breathing. Whether you’re starving your brain of oxygen because you’re trying to hold your breath for the entire length of the notoriously filthy M5 tunnel in Sydney’s south west or you’re stuck behind a rotten-smelling garbage truck on a 40-degree day, air pollution sucks. But if we look at the ever increasing level of anti-pollutant technology appearing in cars and reapply it to new way of thinking about motorcycle helmets, there just may be an answer. Take Tesla’s dramatically named Bioweapon Defense Mode, for example.
Inspired by air filtration systems required in hospitals and spacecraft, Tesla developed a system that strips ambient air of its nasties before it’s distributed through the cabin. In fact, it placed a car in a bubble of extremely contaminated air, shut the doors and activated the filter and within two minutes the air inside the car was clean and safe to breathe. So if someone could come up with a safe and comfortable way to seal the opening of a helmet and apply a similar type of filtration device, we could all breathe easy. After all, according to the World Health Organisation, more than twice the numbers of people are dying each year as a result of air pollution than as a result of car accidents.

5. Autonomous vehicles
They’ve been around for years and between companies like Google, Audi and BMW we’re actually remarkably close to seeing more and more self-driving passenger vehicles on our roads in mainstream applications. And while very few riders would condone the introduction of a self-riding motorcycle — it defeats the purpose, except possibly in the case of getting riders back on the road who can no longer operate a bike themselves — the more prolific autonomous vehicles become on our roads, then in theory, the less cases of SMIDSY we’re likely to see.