What do you do when you’ve got a cushy, luxury touring motorcycle and the industry is gunning toward advanced tech for a safer scoot?
Create similar tech to keep up with the industry, of course – and from what we hear, the new tech Honda’s bringing to the table with her 2023 Gold Wing is radar-adaptive cruise control.
It’s clever, really; with half of the industry in support of advanced tech and the other half in rejection of rider aids, the easiest choice as a motorcycle manufacturer is to go slow.
Break it to ‘em easy-like.
That means not choosing the Honda Rear-Facing Helmet Radar patented back in 2019, nor the impressive breakthrough of the world’s first artificial intelligence (A.I.-powered) Honda ‘Intelligent Driver-Assistive Technology’ that was premiered around this time last year.
But adaptive cruise control?
Manageable.
According to Motorrad Online (who got their hands on the patent in the first place), this particular adaptive radar system works to detect lane changes of yourself and third-party vehicles, with the center display showing off a screen in the middle that lights up as objects come within the radar’s range.
There’s also a patent image that shows potential for more safety aids to be attached to the side of the bike – perhaps this is a hint toward other rider aids like proximity warnings, blind spot detection or emergency frontal collision override?
Currently, Honda’s adaptive cruise system joins the likes of Ducati, KTM, Yamaha and Kawasaki, the latter of whom carries a camera system in her incubating Ninja H2 SX.
What do you think? Would you be down for riding with radar-adaptive cruise control?
Let us know below, and please – stay safe on the twiistes.