Motorbike manufacturers working for a safer future

The Connected Motorcycle Consortium is the result of the sector’s manufacturers joining forces to bring the safety benefits of co-operative ITS to motorbike riders – but it is an initiative that is facing challenges in implementing the technology. Formed in 2015 with founding members BMW, Honda and Yamaha, CMC was created following an MoU agreed to by ACEM, the peak European motorcycle organisation representing major manufacturers, in 2014. Under this MoU, manufacturers agreed to work together to develop C-
October 12, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
Easy rider: Kazuyuki Maruyama of Honda

The Connected Motorcycle Consortium is the result of the sector’s manufacturers joining forces to bring the safety benefits of co-operative ITS to motorbike riders – but it is an initiative that is facing challenges in implementing the technology. Formed in 2015 with founding members 1731 BMW, 1683 Honda and 6654 Yamaha, 6480 CMC was created following an MoU agreed to by ACEM, the peak European motorcycle organisation representing major manufacturers, in 2014. Under this MoU, manufacturers agreed to work together to develop C-ITS by 2020 for at least one model in each manufacturer’s range, allowing motorcycles to take advantage of the safety benefits of ITS.

Other major manufacturers are set to come on board in the near future, according to CMC co-ordinator Thomas Bischoff. Bischoff said that with 50% of motorcyclist fatalities resulting from other motorists being unaware of a motorcycle’s presence there were compelling safety arguments in developing C-ITS for this sector.

At the same time, he said, there were significant engineering, physical and even cultural challenges, relating to motorcycle dynamics, their size, shape, manoeuvrability – and the opposition by many riders to any form of “surveillance” or control.

“All these challenges mean that we can’t simply adapt current motor vehicle C-ITS technology to motorcycles,” said Bischoff.

CMC is also a forum to align the needs of motorcycle C-ITS with other standards developed for the broader vehicle market.

“Our aim is to fairly closely follow what is happening in vehicle C-ITS, so that the benefits of this technologycan quickly be available to motorcyclist,” Bischoff said. Road safety authorities in Europe, the US and Japan are watching CMC’s initiatives with great interest.

“And we’ve found that our presence at the ITS World Congress here in Melbourne – which is our first outside of those three markets – is gaining plenty of attention from road safety agencies in other regions,” he said.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Engineers and inventors of the future at World Congress
    October 12, 2016
    Tomorrow’s engineers, inventors and transport system planners showed their ideas, visions and solutions for dealing with current and future transport challenges to delegates at this week’s ITS World Congress. Displays outside the main exhibition area included the Young Students Design Your Future Challenge, and the Victorian Model Solar Vehicle Challenge, with students from local primary and secondary schools working with Museum Victoria’s Scienceworks to present their ideas. Jonathan Shearer, Scienceworks’
    Read More
  • ITS Australia Student Scholarship winners to participate in 23rd ITS World Congress
    August 20, 2015
    As part of the 23rd ITS World Congress to be held in Melbourne, Australia in 2016, event host Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) Australia initiated a scholarship program for students in the Asia Pacific region and an ITS Future Innovators Club to foster young ITS professionals. The ten scholarship winners represent nations in the Asia Pacific region and were announced at the recent Asia Pacific Forum in Nanjing. ITS Australia congratulates these winners and acknowledges the contribution of each ITS as
    Read More
  • Machine vision standards definition moves forward with establishment of new forum
    December 3, 2012
    The new Future Standards Forum will homogenise standards develop in the machine vision and partnering sectors. Here, machine vision industry experts discuss developments. By Jason Barnes At the Vision Show, which took place in Stuttgart at the beginning of November, the European Machine Vision Association, the US’s Automated Imaging Association and the Japan Industrial Imaging Association (JIIA) established a joint initiative, the Future Standards Forum (FSF). This, said the EMVA’s President Toni Ventura, a
    Read More
  • An 'E' for effort
    February 27, 2012
    A friend of mine's wife used to work on a ladies' magazine.
    Read More

Highlighted Content