A group known as the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC), which represents major motorcycle manufacturers, wants to make these situations a thing of the past by using technologies such as vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems. The company recently held an event at the Lausitzring race track in Germany, where the system developed by Ducati and several suppliers was demonstrated. Another Volkswagen Group brand, Lamborghini, also participated in the testing.
When developing the system, Ducati and the CMC looked at the different situations that caused the most dangerous accidents between cars and motorcycles, taking into account both the frequency of accidents, and the level of injuries caused. Situations were then identified where communication between the car and the motorcycle could have prevented the accident.
The top three identified emergency situations included intersections with limited visibility and no traffic lights; left turns by car and motorcycle moving in opposite directions; and the more specific situation of an unprotected turn, where a motorcycle may want to pass a large vehicle, such as a truck, in the center of the road, but does not know that the vehicle in front is about to turn left.
To prevent such crash, the Ducati system communicates with the vehicle and provides a visible warning to both the rider
CMC wants warning information specific to motorcycles to be standardized so can be was easy to add to future vehicle-to-vehicle communications systems being developed by various parties, including major automakers. CMC — is not the first group to insist on such a system. Honda demonstrated its own version back in 2013 .
