After Ducati, KTM working on sensor-based riders’ assistance

MANILA: Sensor-based driving experience has been available in cars for a long time now, with adaptive cruise control being the most common one. However, such technology is yet to be seen in commercial motorcycles.

Having said that, though this system would take a really long time to get popular among two-wheelers, the introduction isn’t very far. Following the footsteps of Ducati, which quoted that it is working on radar-based adaptive cruise control, KTM has taken up the task of introducing such sensor-based technology in its motorcycles.

The Vice President of KTM’s Research & Development, Mr Gerald Matschl, said that these systems are still under development and are not up for an introduction next year or any time soon. Also, since the new tech developments are important from the safety perspective, they'll be only available to the public post KTM's intensive reliability testing. 

 

The two sensor-based technologies that KTM is working on are Blind Spot Detection and Adaptive Control. The testing prototype was a KTM 1290 Super Adventure, which was made to follow a people carrier van. The rider on the demo motorcycle kept his right foot off the brake pedal and his right hand off the handlebar.

In the test, with the 1290 Super Adventure had rear and front-facing sensors, the bike managed to maintain a distance from the car in front, slowed down and took pace whenever necessary, all of this without any inputs from the rider.

 

As for the Blind Spot Detection, the rear sensor works to detect any vehicle closing from behind. The alert is passed to the rider via the mirror, which has LED lights. If the vehicle comes too close from behind, the mirror LED would be illuminated and a warning would be passed on to the rider on the TFT display.

These new technologies would be substantially expensive and are expected to make a debut in the KTM 1290 Super Adventure, but not before the end of 2020.