Contemplating my first ride out of the year tomorrow and what that delicious anticipation means? Me, the bike, smiles and skills. I just read an article about driverless taxi trials in London. As a spokesman for cab drivers put it “a solution looking for a problem?”
What do you all think? I have zero problem with industrial and medical robotics by the way. Excellent technology for repetitive and tight tolerance tasks and accuracy of application.
However, silly question, would you happily ride pillion on a bike with a robot pilot? Hey, we are already giving ourselves over to quickshifters, adaptive cruise control, auto clutches, idiot warnings, six axis IMU’s etc. A robot brain under the fuel tank can do all of that stuff seamlessly and precisely so does my bike actually need ME any longer? Not for much longer far as I can see.
Personally I have no desire to share the roads with driverless vehicles whether taxis or artic trucks any more than I want to ride a driverless train, aircraft, ferry or anything else. Trouble is there is a section of our population so enamoured of the tech world and well heeled enough to pay premium prices for bragging rights and those solutions the rest of us actually treasure doing without?
The existential issue is giving away agency over what actually separates us as human to a machine we are constantly told is better than ourselves. That is what we are being sold. The motive too often bigger profits and runaway investment that could have vastly more useful applications.
Am I a NIMBY as well as a dinosaur? 
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I think I agree with you.
And in addition the adoption of driverless vehicles remove masses of local (relatively well paid) blue collar jobs and replace them with a few high paid white collar jobs= IT project managers, Architects and salesmen
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this may be an urban myth abd i haven’t gone to find the story but allegedly there was a guy in usa who sued a motorhome company because he wasn’t warned putting it on cruise control didn’t mean he no longer had to sit at the wheel. apparently he got up and went into the back to make coffee, with predictable results.
I’d prefer fully AI drive vehicles to AI assisted 
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Over either I prefer personal anarchy! We got that already and I understand how that works. I’m already programmed to deal with that. Your reference kinda proves that? Give a moron a new toy he will figure out some way to make it lethal. Like the guy in California a few years ago who set his Tesla to automatic then got in the back seat. If human beings cannot be trusted I am inclined to trust even less those who believe their inventions are smarter than the rest of us? 
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I’ve recently took the plunge…traded in my 6 year old Volvo XC60 PHEV for a new Chinese version (Tiggo 7) for half the price with the same/more tech. I was having a distinct lack of customer service from Warrington Volvo following a corporate acquisition from the Sytner Group…I won’t go into the torturous details. However my point is that Volvo in fact is owned by a Chinese Company anyway and a considerable number of parts, inc the hybrid battery are Chinese but they charge top dollar. These cars have all the tech including “ intelligent” cruise control systems that also being a dinosaur I was amazed to find they work…not that I’d take my eyes off the road etc like our dumb American friend mentioned. Hopefully I’ve not gone off topic too much but do you think we might have an autonomous Moto Guzzi…if we do perhaps it’ll be constructed using parts from China
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All I can say is “God forbid” any ‘autonomous bike!” (I do know you were joking!) I seem to recall though an article somewhere in the last few years of BMW testing/working on a self righting bike? Perhaps no more than a tentative look at possible applications in future but I’ve got to ask.. why? Just to prove they could do it?
Seems to me to strike right at the heart of why we love riding in the first place? Mastering the physics, total engagement, the sheer pleasure of getting it right and getting better. Without that, what’s the point? Might as well just play a video game or a simulator.
On a lighter note I am reminded of the movie “Demolition Man” where ‘dinosaur’ Stallone is ejected into the future where sex has been sanitised. Simulated and no actual physical contact. No “horizontal Mambo” for him and Sandra Bullock. I am delighted I will be dead and gone before being denied going to the edge with anything!
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I can’t see bikes being automated for any purpose other than pizza delivery. We buy motorbikes because we enjoy the engagement with the machine and being part of it. Unlike a car, we can more our weight around on the bike to effect how it reacts in corners, under braking and acceleration.
Yes, they have things like cruise control, quickshifter, traction control and ABS but you can switch those off and ABS & traction control only sit in the background doing nothing unless its all going wrong.
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I hear where you are coming from Steve and don’t necessarily disagree. ABS and traction control are for sure considered and useful attributes as are better tyres/frames, brakes etc.
Where I am coming from is decades of riding superbikes before they had any of that stuff and survived just fine. For those who love all the gizmos power to them but I have never to my knowledge had my skin saved by any of them. Have I just been lucky? Can’t argue with that and consider myself lucky every time I come home unscathed. I do hope though at least a part of the equation has something to do with good judgement also. I certainly am not dumb enough to choose to disable ABS or either to feel I have to dial up traction control to the max. Same reason I do not rely on dayglo vests or extra lights in the belief that will save me from the blind and distracted.
What I do not want and am reacting to is anything that either distracts my attention or interferes or supercedes my connection to and enjoyment of the machine. Sorry, I’ll take a sweet and slick gearbox over a quickshifter any day of the week and for sure have zero interest in the latest twist and go auto gearboxes. Puhleese! I have long been aware that scooters make way more sense for ease and creature comforts. Sensible and often cheaper.
Have I ever actually been remotely tempted? Not a chance.
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I have a quickshifter on my Yamaha. Its a really slick gearbox and most of the time I use the clutch anyway, the quickshifter makes no difference if you use the gearbox as normal, with the clutch.
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I remember having one of those new fangled electric starters on a Suzuki GT185 . It also kept the kick start…belt and braces!!! Just in case. As a young 18 year old I thought it was the bees knees. None of my mates had this tech on their 125s or 250s. Happy Days 
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Kind of my point Steve? My last few 1400 Kwaks had superb gearboxes and brakes it must be said. To me an additional complicated gizmo that adds to price for so marginal return just makes no sense? Most of my upshifts were made clutchless and just as smooth. If it ain’t broke why fix it?
Just BTW if I at times sound challenging or opinionated do not be offended. Just the way I am built. I am a life long believer in dialogue and that dialogue breeds understanding? Sometimes I will bang away at something to see what comes out. Not necessarily my last word on anything. More often than not a good back and forth elicits a point that makes me reconsider my own statements. Too often some see that kind of approach as being some kind of attack. A good debate should not be something to be scared of. Just the world I was raised in. 
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One of my early memories was on a mates GT500. I can still hear in my head that ferocious rangadangadanga mental two stroke warning to the unwary. 
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Quickshifters do give a performance beneft, you can shift under full throttle so it does maintain better acceleration. I think they definitely have a place on performance bike.
There is however a lot of pointless features on modern bike. Rider modes on bikes with 60hp or less, why? Under what circumstances is the full 60hp too much? My bike has 120ho and even with that I always have it in the sportiest rider mode. Phone connectivity is another thing, when riding is the time to forget that your phone exists and just enjoy the ride and the noise and feel of the bike. Optional comfort seats are what really annoy me, manufacturers fitting an uncomfortable plank of a seat just so they can sell you the optional, upgrade to a comfort seat.
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Thumbs up on the phone deal!! There will be backlash from many on that I know. Tunes/gps prompts et al. Each to their own but, like you, i hugely value the disconnection from anything else but the road, the bike and my thoughts and smiles.
Had ride modes on the ZZR’s and never changed from standard. With 205 hp on tap how much more would you ever need? Or actually be able to handle. Now a standard heated seat and grips I’d value way more than some of the useless extras. How about a centre stand thrown in? LOL
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Im not a fan of all the electronics, quick shifters, rider modes, LCD dash, navigation aids, phone pairing, traction control etc etc - with the possible exception of ABS which can be a life saver in a wet emergncy stop situation. I like my bikes to be analogue, more involving to ride. One of the main attractions with an old Guzzi is the agricultural/analogue experience of riding one. I had a KTM 790 for a while that had the full suite of electronic goodies - it did everything brilliantly but as a riding experience left me rather cold, so I got rid.
To my mind all of this modern electronic stuff is quite unnecessary on a road bike and actually detracts from the experience of riding a motorcycle
Russell
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Perzackly where I am coming from! 
Big thumbs up on analogue clocks too! Proper!
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There are still plenty of options for fully analogue bikes (ignoring fuel injection and electronic ignition). Royal Enfields and some Moto-Guzzi’s and some Triumphs are pretty analogue. Choices get a bit more limited on bigger, more powerful bikes but is there the demand? For example, Yamaha makes a basic version of the Tracer 9 without the active suspension, cruise control etc, etc and according to my local dealer, no one bought them, Autotrader has 14 of these base models compared to 87 of the higher spec bike so the higher spec one is obviously much more popular despite being a couple grand more expensive.
I might interpret those numbers differently without access to comparison with new sales? i.e the higher numbers of hi spec models being shed in favour of something else? I admit I don’t absolutely know that. I do know that e.g. Harley and KTM are sitting on masses of unsold inventories. I suspect we have hit the peak of the top end adventure bubble and the sudden upswing in middleweight analogues is happening for a reason. People are choosing differently.
The well heeled members of the biking community can still afford the top shelf BM’s/Ducatis/Triumphs all chasing perfection and overkill of equipment. The majority have less money to spend these days. MG apparently have no problem increasing sales of V7’s. Others producing more parallel twins middleweights and doing quite nicely it seems? The Himalayan I think I read is one of the top UK sellers these days? That suggests a clear trend to me. Basics are becoming more valued again. Maybe the younger bikers are getting smarter than I was back in the day? I just know what I value now in my dotage.
In a car you have a tad more time to react to a car doing the wrong thing. On a bike it can mean the difference between staying on or coming off.
The rider and his/her inputs are everything on a motorcycle so to even try to automate us is, IMO, utter madness and truly dangerous.
That’s not to say that some nutter in tech HQ won’t try it
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I’m sure that robotic taxis are the least of our problems; the real issue is the lack of control demonstrated by humans whose control can be somewhat limited or nonexistent…
And a robo-bike? I’m not an early adopter but after they have demonstrated themselves safe then I’m up for it.