British car company Jaguar appears to be returning to its motorcycle roots with patents for an electric motorcycle, a hi-tech motorcycle jacket and head-up display helmet linked to the company.
The Arc Vector electric motorcycle, jacket and helmet were unveiled last year by Arc Vehicles.
However, the patent filings for some of the innovations have now been filed and assigned to Indian-owned Jaguar Land Rover which is a subsidiary of Tata Motors.
JLR’s InMotion Ventures is also a leading investor in Arc Vehicles which was founded by Mark Truman who used to run JLR Special Operations and its Whitespace skunkworks, where Arc was developed.
Does all this mean Jaguar may be making a return to motorcycles?
After all, the company started as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922 making motorcycle sidecars. Many other car companies, such as BMW, also started making motorcycles.
Or does it simply mean the intellectual property in the patents will be assigned to future Jaguars and Land Rovers?
If the latter is the case, you may ask what use drivers would have for the motorcycle jacket that sends haptic alerts to riders if a collision is imminent.
However, that technology could be used to send haptic alerts to drivers through the seat or steering wheel.
As for the head-up display helmet technology, that could be used on the car windscreens.