Skip to main content

Bosch develops motorcycle to car communications to reduce crashes

Bosch, in partnership with Autotalks, Cohda Wireless and Ducati, has developed a prototype solution which connects cars and motorcycles, allowing them to communicate with each other in a bid to reduce the number of crashes involving motorcyclists. According to estimates by Bosch accident research, motorcycle-to-car communication could prevent nearly one-third of motorcycle accidents. The system enables vehicles within a radius of several hundred metres to exchange information about ten times a second about
May 26, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
311 Bosch, in partnership with 6765 Autotalks, 6667 Cohda Wireless and Ducati, has developed a prototype solution which connects cars and motorcycles, allowing them to communicate with each other in a bid to reduce the number of crashes involving motorcyclists.


According to estimates by Bosch accident research, motorcycle-to-car communication could prevent nearly one-third of motorcycle accidents.

The system enables vehicles within a radius of several hundred metres to exchange information about ten times a second about vehicle types, speed, position, and direction of travel. Well before drivers or their vehicle sensors see an approaching motorcycle, this technology informs them that a motorcycle is approaching, allowing them to adopt a more defensive driving strategy. If the system identifies a potentially dangerous situation, it can warn the rider or driver by sounding an alarm and flashing a warning notice on the dashboard. In this way, all road users receive essential information that actively helps avoid accidents.

The public WLAN standard (ITS G5) is used as the basis for the exchange of data between motorcycles and cars. Transmission times of just a few milliseconds between transmitter and receiver mean that participating road users can generate and transmit important information relating to the traffic situation. Parked or idling vehicles also transmit data to any surrounding receivers. To allow riders and drivers who are farther away to reliably receive the necessary information, the technology makes use of multi-hopping, which forwards the information automatically from vehicle to vehicle. In critical situations, therefore, all road users know what is happening and are able to take appropriate action in advance.

Related Content

  • January 23, 2015
    NHTSA to add automatic braking systems vehicle safety features
    US Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has announced that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration plans to add two cutting-edge automatic emergency braking systems to the recommended advanced safety features included under its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) – the latest step in a half-century of safety innovations that have saved more than 600,000 lives, according to new NHTSA research. The agency plans to continue to encourage development and commercialization of additional promising saf
  • February 3, 2012
    Connecting people and mobility
    Stéphane Petti, Business Development Manager - Automotive, at Orange Business Services' International M2M Center, says that the ITS industry can no longer afford to ignore the telecommunications industry's role in connecting people and mobility services. To telephone companies (telcos), the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sector is nothing new. Worldwide, they have been focusing considerable attention on M2M in all its sub-segments for several years now. It is the migration of M2M from fixed to wireless connectivi
  • December 4, 2018
    Tecsidel’s Pan-American Highway tunnel eases Lima’s traffic woes
    The Pan-American Highway connects the US and Canada with Latin America, running for thousands of miles from Alaska in the north to Argentina in the south. Mauro Nogarin finds that one tunnel built underneath it is now providing relief for thousands of travellers each day On the Pan-American Highway, the lengthy series of roads which spans both American continents - from the US state of Alaska to the Latin American country of Argentina - ITS solutions are many and varied. One of these, in Peru’s capital
  • November 7, 2013
    Bit by bit insurers agree data protocol
    Telematics technology may be a game changer for the automobile insurance industry but it comes with some caveats as Colin Sowman discovers. James Bielak, (P&C) program manager at the US office of ACORD (the Association for Cooperative Operations Research and Development), has an unenviable job: to devise a standard form of communicating vehicle data between telematics providers and insurance companies. To that end he has gathered together a group composed of insurers, telematics providers and other intere