Adapting the tech from cars not as easy as it seems
Lane departure warning systems are standard on most modern cars but the technology hasn’t made the leap to motorcycles yet – that’s something Honda is working on changing.
A new patent application from the company, which is currently lagging behind its closest rivals in terms of rider-assistance systems like radar cruise control and blind spot detection, shows a Gold Wing that’s equipped not only with a frontal radar but a camera that’s specifically intended to be used for lane departure detection.
The radar is something Honda’s been working on for a while, in parallel to an alternative, stereoscopic, camera-based forward-detection set-up to enable adaptive cruise control and frontal crash mitigation, but the lane departure element of the new patent is a development that clearly illustrates a unique problem that motorcycles face adopting the tech.
Why? Because, unlike cars, we can legally ride along the white lines dividing lanes while filtering through traffic. A simple lane departure system would be constantly set off by that.
A conventional lane departure system uses a camera to ‘watch’ the lines on either side of a lane. Drifting too close without indicating your intention to cross them triggers a warning alarm.
The Honda system presented in the new patent works in a similar fashion, but adds extra computing to work out whether you’re intentionally riding along the white line.
An initial move onto the line will trigger the warning, as usual, but the system is programmed to supress further alarms if you continue to ride along, or near, the line, calculating that you are intentionally filtering, or lane-splitting.
It also passes that information on to the radar-based frontal collision warning system, which needs to be recalibrated when you’re filtering through traffic to prevent false alarms. To keep those to a minimum, the radar narrows its field of detection ahead of the bike when you’re riding along the lane dividing line to make sure it’s not triggered by the cars you’re passing in the lanes on either side.
While rival companies like BMW, KTM, Ducati, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and Moto Guzzi have all launched models with front-facing radars over the last few years, Honda has yet to join the fray. It has, however, filed dozens of patent applications related to such systems, indicating Honda is working on its own hardware and software – unlike rivals that are largely adopting off-the-shelf radar systems from companies like Bosch. BP
