According to Japan Today magazine, the recently-unveiled Shoei smart helmet is headed for production.
The smart helmet, called the IT-HT, was unveiled last month at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show. At that point it was just a concept, showing off the capabilities of helmetmaker Shoei as well as automotive electronics manufacturer NS West, who collaborated on the project.
Shoei is obviously responsible for the construction of the helmet itself, and NS West is said to be working on the helmet’s graphic user interfaces and other technological aspects.
Perhaps the key selling point to this helmet will be its heads-up display, which is said to be similar to what’s found in some current-model cars. No surprise here, as NS West is also involved with automotive companies, and is no doubt applying what it’s learned elsewhere. The HUD is supposed to adjust automatically to different brightness levels, which hopefully means it’s convenient in all those scenarios where you go from darkness to light quickly: traffic tunnels, shady, tree-covered roads, even twisty roads in a sunrise or sunset scenario where the sun may be in your eyes intermittently.
Although we haven’t heard Canadian pricing or availability yet, some of the gossip we’ve heard would place the helmet around the $1,500 mark when it gets here, but that’s mostly conjecture. Stay tuned, though, as this is one of the most interesting moves forward in motorcycle tech in a while. Smaller companies have tried and largely failed to bring smart helmets with HUD into the mainstream, but this is the first time a major manufacturer has really pushed the idea.
“which hopefully means it’s convenient in all those scenarios where you go from darkness to light quickly: traffic tunnels, shady, tree-covered roads, even twisty roads in a sunrise or sunset scenario where the sun may be in your eyes intermittently.”
You mean all those scenarios where the last thing you need is something distracting you from the task at hand?