In the years that have passed since the invention of motorized means of transport, safety has progressed greatly. Yet, despite the many safety features, procedures and tech now available in the car and motorcycle industries, the world’s roads are still plagued by crashes.
There are a few companies out there, like say Volvo, which dream of a world where no crashes take place. It’s a sort of utopia, if you ask me, as no matter how much tech you pump into a vehicle, there are so many factors at play here it's impossible to include them all in such a projection.
Yet, others are following Volvo’s lead, and seemingly with the same unwarranted enthusiasm. Japanese bike maker Yamaha, for example, once again joined the bandwagon today, and it’s not calling for a significantly reduced number of motorcycle crashes, but their complete elimination. Something we've heard before from them, almost exactly one year ago.
The announcement was made on Friday, November 11, and the idea of a zero-crashes world is included under the umbrella of a safety philosophy called Jin-Ki Kanno × Jin-Ki Anzen, where the former term represents Yamaha’s “exclusive development ideal," and the latter its “belief that having people and machines work together in complementary ways can make more sophisticated safety skills and technologies possible.”
In words we can relate to, Yamaha is planning to change how things are done in the motorcycling industry on three levels: technology, skills, and connectivity.
Starting from the premise that most motorcycle crashes take place in up to two seconds of the trigger, Yamaha plans to rely heavily on tech like the Unified Brake System, introduced on bikes like the Tracer 9 GT+ just this week, but also other innovations that could make riding a lot safer.
On the skills level, we’ll probably witness a push in the field of teaching riders more and better about safety measures, the skills themselves, and everything they need to know to keep safe.
Last but not least, connectivity is key to all of this, both at a single bike and rider level, but also in the grander scheme of things, as no matter how much it tries, Yamaha will never succeed in reshaping the world on its own.
You can have a deeper look at the Jin-Ki Kanno × Jin-Ki Anzen philosophy in the PDF attached below. The series of videos that follow will shed a bit of light on how tech could help Yamaha with its goals.
Yamaha does not say when the world free of accidents it imagines could get here.
Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies. Full profile
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