It Looks Like a Robot and Acts Like One, Too
Yamaha won an iF Design Award 2019 for its concept motorcycle called the MOTOROiD. The iF Design Awards are awarded to excellent designs selected by top designers in the industry. The MOTOROiD’s blend of unique technology, innovative ideas, and superb execution is what qualified it for the honor.
The MOTOROiD has won similar awards in the past. According to Yamaha, the bike has won an International Design Excellence Award and Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2018. With the iF Design Award, it would seem the high-end design crowd is pretty pleased with this thing. To be honest, it is impressive, but that doesn’t mean it’s not weird as hell.
Yamaha says the MOTOROiD is designed for “personal mobility in which the rider resonates harmoniously with the machine.” That’s a fancy way of saying that the bike uses artificial intelligence to hold itself upright, recognize the owner and move forward to greet him or her, and react to rider’s actions based on what the company calls a human-machine interface. Call me crazy but that just sounds kind of freaky.
There’s no denying that the MOTOROiD is a unique, interesting, and innovative design and worthy of some recognition from designers around the world. I think it’s interesting and in some ways cool, but if this is the direction motorcycle technology is going, I think I’ll delve deeper into the past and become a classic bike aficionado.
Of course, it will be years until this kind of tech makes its way onto production motorcycles. These forward-thinking designs and the technology on them usually take a while to come to fruition in the real world. However, the personal mobility movement is something that both automakers and motorcycle manufacturers seem to think is the future, so we might as well get ready for it.