- A part of Honda’s upcoming voice-controlled features
- Visor will be auto-adjusted to reduce wind noise
- Likely to be present on the 2024 Goldwing
Honda has filed a patent application in Japan for an auto-adjusting windscreen mechanism. The system will debut on the Goldwing touring motorcycle and will be capable of adjusting the windscreen height and angle without the need for any input from the rider.
This will be a part of Honda’s upcoming ecosystem of voice-controlled features. It will be crucial for the system’s microphone to detect the rider’s voice clearly for performing different functions. However, wind noise, or the disturbance caused by it, might hamper the overall efficiency of the system. This is where the automatic windscreen adjustment functionality will play a crucial role. On detecting heady winds being captured by the microphone at higher speeds, this mechanism will adjust the windscreen at such an angle and height that the noise will be mitigated.
As per the leaked patent of the system, it comprises a microphone placed on the rider’s helmet and cameras on the rear-view mirrors facing the rider. The microphone detects the wind noise and adjusts the windscreen as per the wind intensity. Meanwhile, it is also important to make sure that the windscreen, specifically its upper edge, doesn’t distract the rider by coming into their line of sight. Hence, the mirror-mounted cameras are used to monitor the position of the rider’s eyes and place the windscreen’s edge above or below the line of sight.
Besides the auto-adjusting windscreen, Honda is working on a bunch of radar-based safety features like adaptive cruise control, blind-spot detection, and a crash-mitigation braking system. We might see some of these features on the 2024 iteration of the Goldwing.
