BMW has unveiled the latest version of its vehicle-to-vehicle safety system in the R1200 RS ConnectedRide.
BMW presented the bike at the CMC Conference 2017 last week. The CMC is the Connected Motorcycle Consortium, a co-operative effort of motorcycle manufacturers founded by BMW, Yamaha, and Honda, in an attempt to develop cross-brand motorcycle safety systems and standards (find more details at its website). BMW claims this is the only cross-manufacturer consortium for motorcycle safety. Currently, Kawasaki, KTM and Suzuki are also involved, as well as industry bodies and other parties.
So, what does BMW’s latest bike have? The R1200 RS ConnectedRide comes with safety systems to help you cross roads and make left-hand turns safely. The bike also has safety systems that warn the motorcyclist and nearby cars when a motorist is about to interfere with someone else’s right-of-way. All this is made possible by vehicle-to-vehicle communication equipment, which works with a cross-manufacturer communication standard (Suzukis can communicate with Yamahas, for instance), as well as a satellite system. There’s plenty of high-tech wizardry going on here, for sure; none of this comes as earth-shattering news, as the tech has been out for a while, but BMW’s latest version of it shows that it’s still improving and hopefully not stuck in development hell.
Honda also exhibited an Africa Twin with new safety technology at last week’s event, and Yamaha had a 900 Tracer with the tech as well.
The CMC is on a push to gain even more new members, saying vehicle-to-vehicle safety systems have developed without much thought towards motorcycles. With that in mind, the CMC is going to appear at Montreal at the end of this month at the ITS World Congress, participating in a round-table talk with experts from around the world on how to improve bike safety. If you want to head down to the Palais des congrès, you can actually check out the CMC’s exhibit for yourself—we don’t know if any of those bikes will be on display, though.
