The MOTOROiD2 will be the main theme of Yamaha’s exhibition at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show, as a way to explore the relationship between man and machine.
Yamaha announced its presence at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show in Tokyo at the end of the month, as well as the news it will present.
The main novelty of Yamaha at the Japan Mobility Show is undoubtedly the MOTOROiD2, which is an evolution of the original MOTOROiD concept presented in 2017.
Yamaha has been one of the motorcycle manufacturers most involved with the ideas of autonomous vehicles, from the R1-based Motobot to the most recent applications in industrial vehicles with Panasonic.
The MOTOROiD2, however, is perhaps the most advanced idea that Yamaha has put into a motorcycle. Its philosophy is not one of total autonomy, but of an integration of human and artificial intelligence. Perhaps a summary of Yamaha’s idea with the project is to make the experience of owning a motorcycle more similar to that of owning an animal.
“The MOTOROiD2 is […] a personal mobility vehicle that can recognize its owner, stand up from its stand, and move alongside its driver,” says Yamaha. This recognition of the owner is not limited to images of the owner’s face, but also of their gestures. The concept also takes into account the driving experience, of course. Yamaha says the MOTOROiD2 “also has a distinct sense of life when someone is riding on its back and has a presence more akin to that of a life companion.”
The MOTOROiD2 uses an Active Mass Center Control System (AMCES) for “attitude detection and self-balancing,” says Yamaha, as well as a “Leaf structure” that allows the chassis to complementarily react to the driver’s movements and inputs.
From the photographs, it is not difficult to understand that this is not just a conceptual bike, but that it is far from having the individual concepts that culminate in its design in a production model, but it is an interesting vision of Yamaha’s (at least part of) vision of the future of motorcycling.
