How would you like to experience a lap as fast as the best racer just at the touch of a button?
BMW Motorrad Facebook page says they have developed an autopilot, self-riding feature called the iRace Kit for the S 1000 RR motorcycle.
They say the software “allows less experienced riders and even those who have just received their motorcycle licences to turn in an astounding performance on the race track, with the assistance of a number of autonomous riding programs”.
April Fools
Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how you feel – it’s yet another annual BMW April Fool’s Day joke.
Like many of its previous April 1 jokes, it’s almost believable and not unachievable.
After all, BMW has developed both balancing and automated self-riding prototypes.
Self-riding BMW prototypeIn this year’s April 1 joke, BMW “head of autonomous racing simulation” Dr Phillip-Magnus Schalk says:
The development of the BMW Motorrad iRace Kits was based on the experience made by our Superbike world champion riders. They provided us with valuable programming data, particularly as far as the braking points were concerned. We believe that this patented BMW Motorrad system will enable the majority of S 1000 RR riders to enter a whole new world of motorcycling. It is conceivable that we might even integrate the system in other models at some point in the future.
Who knows? Maybe one day it will be reality and you can be the racer you never thought you could be!
Last year, BMW’s joke was that riders in remote areas who break a small part such as a lever, mirror or indicator lens could print new parts on a mobile printer in their top box or panniers.
BMW Motorrad iparts 3D printerIt is already possible to 3D-print parts and it is not inconceivable that sometime soon we will be able to print them on the run from a machine in our bike’s luggage.
The previous year they “announced” a two-wheel-drive version of its R 1200 GS Adventure would be available later in the year. Of course, it never happened, but it’s a possibility!
BMW “two-wheel-drive” GSBavarian buffoons
The Bavarian jokesters are famous for their April Fool’s Day jokes, having begun running spoof advertisements on April 1 in the early 1980s.
BMW’s marketing department says April Fool jokes are “designed to teeter on the verge of credibility” and often focus on a new and revolutionary piece of technology, but “push the idea just beyond the plausible.”
Some of their other April 1 pranks were a self-cleaning car, remote-inflatable tyres, dog-repellent bumpers, tyres that melted snow and a self-driving car that follows you when you go for a jog. The last one is now becoming reality with self-driving cars!
We don’t do April Fool’s Day jokes at Motorbike Writer, but we’re happy to report on them.