With all the talk about self-driving cars, motorcycles are beginning to feel a little left out. They shouldn't because Japanese manufacturer Yamaha has them covered.
We've talked about MOTOBOT before. It is a humanoid-shaped robot built by Yamaha and fitted to one of its superbikes which it can control entirely on its own. Alright, it does require a bit of help when coming in for a stop - to leak some oil or whatever it is that makes robots take a break from zipping on the track.
MOTOBOT has come a long way since we last met him, which is why the company now refers to it with the "Ver. 2" suffix. Unlike AI-controlled cars, Yamaha's project will never go on unknown roads and will never have to deal with traffic, pedestrians, and all the other surprises that regular streets offer.
That means the team was free to clear its mind of boring things such as safety or user-friendliness and focus on what really mattered: making MOTOBOT go fast. In a straight line, the hunch-backed robot can do over 200 km/h (124 mph), but that wasn't enough to make it a good motorcycle pilot.
To really test its skills, MOTOBOT had to go around a race track and attempt to beat the time set by Valentino Rossi, probably the most famous rider the Moto GP championship ever had and definitely one of the best. The target set by Vale was 85.740 seconds. Could Yamaha's robot beat it?
The answer is no. Not even close. Its time was 116.958, almost 32 seconds slower than the human. However, we wouldn't bet against MOTOBOT to do it one day, and we wouldn't expect to have to wait for it too long. The advancements in artificial intelligence we're seeing these days are bound to make their way on two-wheeled vehicles sooner or later.
Even though we will never see self-driving motorcycles, Yamaha's efforts aren't in vain. The industry agrees that certain features can be used to make bikes safer and easier to ride, which means more people could be drawn to the prospect of making the switch to a motorcycle.
MOTOBOT will undoubtedly be back with another attempt, and even though the bar has been set really high, we doubt the team would have done if it didn't believe their robot could do it. Have a look at the clip below and try not to be freaked out.
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