Cycle News

Cycle News 2015 Issue 01 January 6 2015

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/441908

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I saw my first self-drive car the other day. It was waiting at a junction as heavy traffic rum- bled past. Then, a break, and it soundlessly and slowly googled its way out across to the oppo- site lane to join in. But, oh no: A motorcycle was approaching, fast. It was a "sorry mate, I didn't see you" moment. Except it was a self- drive motorcycle. Each vehicle immediately and automatically took the appropriate avoiding action. No harm done. I was asleep at the time and it was a dream. But it triggered an immediate thought. If drivers and riders will in the foresee- able future no longer be con- sidered necessary on the road, are they necessary in racing? Or is it just really last-century and old-fashioned? You can imagine the grid: 25-odd riderless 1000cc Mo- toGP bikes, balanced by gy- ros, awaiting the wireless start signal to trigger their "full race" programs. And they're off! How well they start would depend not only on the grip on their particular part of the track but also on how their engineers had fiddled with the algorithms (electronics, of course, being standardized), the gearing cho- sen and the courage of the ECU. No, wait. They'd all be equal on that point. Machines are nei- ther brave nor cowardly. But they do have self-preser- BY MICHAEL SCOTT CN III IN THE PADDOCK WHO NEEDS THE RIDERS? P98

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