When I think about future, I always wonder how my action today will shape the tomorrow somehow. Every small step which we take today alters the timeline of the future in one way or the other. That’s why whenever I think about the future of transportation, I am always reminded of big tech giants like Google, Amazon and Apple and how all of them are working every day to perfect the self-driving cars of the future. Being specifically a motorcycle lover, I couldn’t care less about “not having the ability to drive” for myself, therefore a self-driving car will be nothing but a boon for me. Still, the question remains, what will happen to our beloved motorcycles? As riding a motorcycle only makes sense if you do it manually, I do not fear the AI taking over us. Instead, all the technology will be used to make a motorcycle, whose base model will far outperform today’s performance bikes. Let’s take a look at what we can expect to see in future motorcycles, based on current trends.
Electrically driven:
This is a no-brainer, with the impact fossil fuels, have on our environment, our survival will depend upon the elimination of petrol/diesel. What better than a clean source of energy like, Electricity to eliminate the current carbon generating fuels. Electric motorcycles will run better than IC engine motorcycles in almost every day. They won’t vibrate, lose power over time, or pollute the environment. The torque of today’s Naked electric motorcycles is comparable to the heavyweight giants like Honda Gold-wing and this number is only going to go up.Impossible to crash:
It will be impossible to have yourself killed on the bike of the future. Just like how modern day ABS and traction control system have revolutionized motorcycle safety. Self-balancing bikes with crash sensors and actuators will dominate the future roads. If a crash is imminent, then the bike’s onboard computer will take care of the situation by calculating into account every physical factor around him and then responding accordingly. There will be no high-side crash, low side crash and definitely no tank slappers, in the future.Self-charging:
This seems a little far-fetched but the concept of regenerative braking and solar-panels may come together to design a bike which can utilize physical forces to charge itself. The body panels of such a bike will be lined with solar panels so they can feed the battery by using sun’s radiation. Every hard break will utilize the force generated to charge the electric battery further. This whole concept of self-charging is based on "Kardashev scale". According to which, when we become a Type 1 civilization, we will utilize all the energy of our parent star as well as all the ambient energy around us.
Improved range:
In a span of 20 years, there is a good chance that we would have evolved the batteries to their ultimate form. Which spells a good battery life for all electric products including our motorcycles. Today’s E-bikes can offer a range of 150-250 km on a full charge. This range is expected to go up to 700-800 km in the future. Company’s like Tesla are already showing us that an electric car can easily be used in place of a petrol or diesel vehicle. It’s only a matter of time before we see something similar for Motorcycles. Motorcycles of the future will largely remain manually driven and AI-assisted. Over time the electronic aids in our motorcycles will evolve as they learn to act behind the scenes while giving us the control. Judging by the current trends, the future of Motorcycles will be exactly what we want it to be.
By: Yetnesh Dubey