Ducati to Introduce Motorcycle Radar System by 2020
Cornering ABS coming to all Ducati models
Ducati announced plans to introduce a front and rear radar system for motorcycles and to make cornering ABS available across its entire model range. The two initiatives are part of Ducati’s overall “Safety Road Map 2025” plan, the company’s strategy for motorcycle safety technologies.
Working with the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering at the Politecnico di Milano University, Ducati is working on a radar-based warning system to detect vehicles in a motorcycle’s blind spot. The system would alert riders of potential hazards, making for safer lane changes.
Ducati is also working on forward-facing radar with an unnamed technical partner to detect objects in front of a motorcycle. The forward radar system would be used for an adaptive cruise control system, automatically reducing cruise controlled speed when a motorcycle gets too close to traffic ahead. A forward radar system could also warn riders of potential head-on collisions.
Both forward and rear radar systems will be introduced on a Ducati model in 2020, likely a Multistrada (such as the 950 model in the supplied illustration). The Multistrada line has become a bit of a test bed for new Ducati safety technology; in 2014, Ducati worked with Dainese to introduce an integrated D-Air airbag jacket system on the Multistrada 1200 for European markets.
Ducati also announced plans to implement the Bosch cornering ABS system across all of its models. This process is already underway, with the addition of the Bosch 9.1 MP cornering ABS on the Scrambler 1100, which Ducati hails as an industry-first application of the technology on a retro “heritage” model. We can probably expect to see more models to come standard with cornering ABS on for 2019.
We can also expect to see other manufacturers adopt cornering ABS to more models, as government agencies, especially in Europe, push for increased safety technology for two-wheelers. The current Euro 4 standard, for instance, mandated ABS, daytime running lights and traction control systems for most models, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to expect cornering ABS, radar sensors and vehicle-to-vehicle communications to become standard in the future. In this regard, Ducati trying to get an early jump on safety technology.
Dennis has been a part of the Motorcycle.com team since 2008, and through his tenure, has developed a firm grasp of industry trends, and a solid sense of what's to come. A bloodhound when it comes to tracking information on new motorcycles, if there's a new model on the horizon, you'll probably hear about it from him first.
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Nothing will stop the constant advancement of technology but that should not be a substitute for developing riding skills. Attention to what is going on around you should be your focus. Being lulled into a false sense of security by electronic gadgetry can come back to bite you since, as we all know, bikes are not very forgiving when it comes to mistakes.
WHY, WHY, WHY?!?!?! These "aides" do nothing but make people lazy and cause far more issues than they "solve." If you aren't looking where you are going you deserve to run into something. That is probably the primary task you have when operating a motor vehicles of any type.