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Yamaha: New Patent Shows Radar Safety Systems For Future Bikes

A view of the new Yamaha MT-09

With the world slowly rolling over onto the belly of electric travel, it seems that moto companies worldwide are embracing technology that boasts newer, bigger, better perks for the masses. 

One of the categories I will always cheer for is safety – specifically, anything that will improve the age-old tradition of bike-meets-road. 

R7 on the track

Ever the innovating giant, Yamaha has decided to address the unfortunate statistic that all motorcyclists are aware of – namely, that riders are at greater risk on the road than drivers.  

And what better way to provide safety to Yamaha clients than to hop on the same process as KTM,  DucatiKTM, BMW, and Honda with the pending of a Safety Radar System patent?

A view of the patent photos of a Yamaha Safety Radar System.

The concept is simple. The radar – already present in many cars – would house a huge amount of features, including the following:

  • Blind Spot Detection
  • Proximity Warning
  • Impending Frontal Collision Warning (similar to the newer automobile models)
  • Posterior Spatial Warning (for the thrills of the generic parking lot)
  • Overspeeding Warnings (likely not the most popular, but it will also help the bike determine how fast a car is approaching). 
  • Emergency Vehicle Warning (because we have all had that one car that slammed the brakes in front of us as sirens started blaring)

A view of the patent photos of a Yamaha Safety Radar System.

Alongside these perks, MotoPinas also considers the potential of Yamaha, including the newest safety feature to hit showrooms – the V2V (or vehicle-to-vehicle system).

Incorporation of V2V would allow bikes in a certain range to share data – things like speed, location, make, model, and directive, increasing intelligence in traffic – perhaps even going so far as to predict an oncoming hot spot for trouble and project an alternate route. 

A view of the patent photos of a Yamaha Safety Radar System.

Regardless of how Yamaha plans on incorporating the Radar Safety System, any addition of safety to a two-wheeled machine gets a big thumbs up over here. The big questions will be how they intend on getting that software to work with so many dinosaurs on the road, as well as the obligatory question: How much is too much?

Two riders enjoying the new Yamaha Niken GT

Let us know what you think, and stay tuned for more updates on this patent!