Google has filed for approval to test a riderless robotic motorcycle, rumor has it. According to dailymail quoting the Sunday Times, Google’s Ron Medford, director of safety for the self-driving car asked the California state government a letter mentioning that the autonomously-driving vehicle technology could include motorcycles and trucks in the future.
“Although Google is not currently testing any of these vehicles excluded under this section, we believe that the section should be deleted in its entirety, as any such exclusion unnecessarily restricts future innovation. It is certainly possible that future testing could include motorcycles or larger commercial vehicles. If some innovator can demonstrate that testing autonomous technology on such vehicles is safe, then they should be allowed to test. The DMV should not preemptively foreclose potential avenues of an evolving technology, but should instead review every testing permit application on its own merits,” Medford reportedly added.
Now, a robotic self-driving motorcycle is not exactly a new thing, as the technology has been under development for quite some years now, as the video after the jump will show. However, it appears that the Ghostrider - codename for the riderless motorcycle – has gone quite a long way and significant progress was made.
Google hired Anthony Levandovski, one of the guys who had created the initial Ghostrider bike for the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge. The old prototype did not use spinning gyros for stabilization, but an actual steering actuator implement which kept the bike straight analyzing in real-time data coming from the stereoscopic cameras, GPS and other sensors. It is however uncertain at this point whether stabilization will use gyros as in the case of the amazing Lit C-1 self-balancing bike or not.
While cars and trucks could indeed benefit from this technology, why would anyone ride a self-driving bike is a complete mystery reserved for tomorrow’s editorial.
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