A few months ago, BMW got some attention with their VISION NEXT 100 prototype, a two-wheeled look at what they thought would be coming in the next several generations of motorcycling. At CES this week, Honda’s stealing the show with the global debut of “Riding Assist” technology. Honda’s got decades of experience with advanced robotics (remember Asimo?) and they’re utilizing that to create a self-balancing motorcycle.
As a comparison, here’s a quick clip I took at the BMW debut. The rider rode in, parked and then the bike balanced itself. Pretty cool, especially as it was live and it had to work (unlike Faraday Future’s self park demo):
Here’s Honda’s debut video. Obviously it’s not live, but it moves by itself! And it looks like it has some sort of “follow” function as well. Do I want this on my own motorcycles right now? No. As someone who loves robots and motorcycles, do I think this is cool? Very.