Yamaha’s artificial intelligence

Over the last five years, the Tokyo Motor Show that has been the main hub for Japan’s major motorcycle manufacturers to introduce their experimental and concept vehicles into the public domain, and so it appears to be the case again in 2017.

Well, for Yamaha at last, which will have the Motoroid on its stand this week, an  experimental motorcycle which “employs artificial intelligence and explores the feasibility of concepts for creating new forms of personal mobility in which the rider resonates harmoniously with machine”.

Yamaha’s called it an “unleashed prototype” and says it’s capable of recognising its owner and interacting in “other capacities”. Massive challenges for sure, but Yamaha’s at least paying more than lip service into how personal mobility will evolve.

Yamaha isn’t just gazing into the future with Motoroid in Tokyo, as version two of the autonomous motorcycle-riding robot called MotoBot will also be on display.

We last ran a story on MotoBot in January 2016, when Yamaha declared a major goal was for the robot to be hitting over 200km/h on a race circuit by 2017 – and to challenge Valentino Rossi in lap times.

There’s no update on how Rossi will be put to the cleaners, but Yamaha says Motobot can now ride at high speeds around a race track.

Furthermore, the sophisticated technologies acquired are also intended to be applied to rider support systems in the future, which Yamaha says would certainly make riding safer.