Kawasaki to develop AI for bikes

No, they’re not going to take over the world… yet

Remember the Moto-Terminators? Or at least the two-wheeled Autobots? Kawasaki is going to take the first big step towards something of the sort, with artificial intelligence for motorcycles. It won’t be something as sophisticated as either of the creatures from the movies we’ve mentioned; instead it will be something similar to the self-driving cars that many car manufacturers are currently developing. Among the list of things that the Kawasaki AI will do is recognise the rider’s voice and commands (yes, like the voice recognition system in cars today) and tailor itself to the rider’s preferences and skill level. Simply put, this is a system that will tailor the million different things available in the often hard-to-navigate menus of a motorcycle like traction control, ABS, throttle response and even peak power figures. 

The different settings will integrate and the result will be a motorcycle that is unique in the way it responds and behaves, even though it is one of many examples of the same model. We’re always craving exclusivity, and we must admit, this is as close as we can get without robbing a couple of banks. It also has significance from the perspective of safety – imagine a motorcycle that recognises your skill level and the road conditions, and adapting to them!

We don’t see this technology being applied successfully to motorcycles in a market like the Indian one for the forseeable future, but the thought of a motorcycle that adapts to riding style, thus offering more as your skill develops, is a very appealing one.