Photo: Skully
It was only a matter of time until the big names in the motorcycle business would either team up with the big names in the (still young) HUD helmet industry… or took to developing their own systems. The first decisive step comes from Aprilia, and this IS a really interesting surprise. Frankly we expected the likes of giants such as BMW or Honda to be the first to explore the field, but it looks like the house of Noale chose to be the spearhead in this direction, inking a deal with Skully.
Skully used crowd-funding for raising up the money needed to complete the development of their AR-1 HUD motorcycle helmet and start production. The project drew massive attention and massive support, with early adopters of this technology providing Skully with almost $2.5 million (more than €2 mil), just under 10 times what Skully’s wettest dreams hoped to draw.
The V4-MP multimedia platform Aprilia uses was developed by the Piaggio Group and is used on the RSV4 and Tuono 1100 motorcycles. The tie-up with Skully will offer riders the possibility to visually access the data provided by the V4-MP system, by means of displaying it on the AR-1’s HUD. The info can be recalled with vocal commands, eliminating the need to press buttons and take eyes off the road, as visordown informs.
No other info was provided at the time of writing, such as prices and availability, but since the first Skully AR-1 prototypes are expected to be delivered in February, we believe it will not be long until more data surfaces.
Aprilia motorcycle data integrated with Skully helmets
It is yet uncertain to what extent Aprilia has become involved in the AR-1 project, as there is no evidence for the house of Noale investing directly in Skully (even though we’ll try to find out). What is certain though, is the fact that the Aprilia-Skully partnership is aimed at taking the rider-vehicle interaction to the next level.The V4-MP multimedia platform Aprilia uses was developed by the Piaggio Group and is used on the RSV4 and Tuono 1100 motorcycles. The tie-up with Skully will offer riders the possibility to visually access the data provided by the V4-MP system, by means of displaying it on the AR-1’s HUD. The info can be recalled with vocal commands, eliminating the need to press buttons and take eyes off the road, as visordown informs.
No other info was provided at the time of writing, such as prices and availability, but since the first Skully AR-1 prototypes are expected to be delivered in February, we believe it will not be long until more data surfaces.
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