New Tech From Bosch Aims To Stop Bike Crashes With A Jet Thruster

Bosch has created a new concept that could prevent many low-grip, low-side motorbike accidents
New Tech From Bosch Aims To Stop Bike Crashes With A Jet Thruster

Motorbikes are awesome, but by riding one, you have to accept they’re inherently less safe than cars. After all, you’re sitting outside on something which isn’t capable of standing up of its own accord.

That’s not to say there’s nothing that can be done in terms of safety, aside from wearing the best protective clothing you can afford. ABS, traction control and even airbags - both on bikes and in leathers - have been interesting areas of development for bike safety in recent years, and now, Bosch has come along with a particularly unusual solution to make riding less dangerous: jet thrusters.

Picture this: you’re banked over and riding at speed around a corner, when you hit a low-grip surface. Perhaps there’s dirt on the road, or fuel. The bike will start to slide, and potentially hit the floor in what’s known as a ‘low-side’ crash. What Bosch is proposing stands a good chance of stopping such an accident.

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Sensors detect wheel slip, and when the system reckons the slide is unrecoverable, it fires a jet of gas from the ‘high side’ of the bike. And just like that, the tyres are pushed back into the tarmac and regain grip. Crisis - hopefully - averted.

There are a few issues with the idea, however. It’s currently just a single-use device, and you can’t help but worry about what might happen if the system fires by accident.

But it’s very early days for the concept: Bosch hasn’t even confirmed if it’ll bring the idea to market, and if it did, we can expect it to take some time to arrive on production bikes.

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Comments

ATOGI_28

It reminds me of this…

05/23/2018 - 08:51 |
36 | 1
Anonymous

Many an accident can be prevented by teaching kids from early on to notice bikes on the road

as for the safety… you get 2 types of bikers. Those who have crashed, and those who are yet to

05/23/2018 - 08:54 |
10 | 3
Matt Robinson
Matt Robinson

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

And that’s why I stopped riding. Crashed once, carried on riding for a bit but just couldn’t accept that I’d probably crash again at some point, either by my own hands or someone else’s. Fair play if you can reconcile that, but I couldn’t!

05/23/2018 - 09:40 |
9 | 1
Anonymous

[DELETED]

05/23/2018 - 09:03 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

[DELETED]

05/23/2018 - 09:03 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

Now you can be an oppressor cuck irl

05/23/2018 - 09:04 |
73 | 2
CS55

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

? The thrusters are mounted on the side so you can only do a vertical takeoff ?

05/23/2018 - 09:24 |
3 | 3
CS55

How to be 100% safe riding a motorbike :

05/23/2018 - 09:28 |
24 | 1
Anonymous

In reply to by CS55

Stay at home **

12/17/2018 - 01:31 |
0 | 0
H5SKB4RU (Returned to CT)

Its still a experiment

05/23/2018 - 09:47 |
1 | 0
Anonymous

I call BS. On both ocasions the frame of the left side baby wheel touched the road. This tech is useless.

05/23/2018 - 10:51 |
1 | 1
Stubaru

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

The mounts that attached the frame to the bike has a pivot, so he can actually turn and lean in

05/23/2018 - 12:53 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

As Jeremy Clarkson once said: “I crashed because I wasnt going fast enough.”

05/23/2018 - 11:02 |
17 | 0
Anonymous

So it’ll be another lit c-1, it won’t fall and this will most likely be the last time we hear about it

05/23/2018 - 11:20 |
0 | 0