An active part of the international consortium whose aim is to include two-wheeled vehicles in the future of connected mobility, Ducati was involved in a simulation of three of the most common cases in which communication between motorcycles and cars can help reduce the risk of accident
September 21, 2023
Il Connected Motorcycle Consortium organized a demonstration event in Germany at the Lausitzring on the effectiveness of the motorcycle-car connectivity systems developed during this consortium research cycle and Ducati was the protagonist together with Lamborghini of some simulations.
What is CMC?
It’s about an international association of manufacturers of two-wheeled vehicles created with the aim of include motorbikes in the future of connected mobility. The ultimate aim is clearly to improve the safety level of motorcyclists. Car manufacturers have been studying and developing Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication technologies for years and the CMC works to also include the information sent by motorbikes, which have different needs and dynamics, so that these can be standardized when this technology is used in the future. will be integrated across the entire fleet of motorbikes and cars in circulation.
The CMC was born in 2016, the year in which Ducati also became affiliated, and saw the members initially engaged in an accurate analysis of the most dangerous accidents between motorbikes and cars in terms of frequency and severity of the damage suffered by motorcyclists. Starting from this investigation, the cases in which connectivity could help to a greater extent were selected and the development of those methodologies capable of reducing the number of impacts and their risk for the safety of motorcyclists began. A fundamental aspect of this research was to limit system reaction times as much as possible since the reduction of the risk of accident depends on how far in advance one of the two actors can be warned.
Ducati’s work
Ducati has chosen to work on the three most critical and dangerous accident cases, i.e. those which place the motorbike in a position of non-visibility towards those arriving by car or which place the motorcyclist in a situation in which he has no visibility of what that is happening ahead. In both situations, communication between vehicles, integrated with the sensors on board, can help reduce the number of accidents. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the systems studied and developed, Ducati has chosen to collaborate with Lamborghini (also part of the Audi Group), which supported the project during the experimental phase by providing a Urus for use case simulations. There are also suppliers who have supported the development of this technology Bertrandt for the hardware part e Nfiniity for the operating system and the implementation of the algorithms.
As we can see from the video created by Ducati, the prototype used in this phase of development has an additional screen on the motorbike on which warning signals are displayed which can inform the motorcyclist of any danger. However, we can imagine in the future that these messages appear directly on the motorcycle’s dashboard.
What type of accident can already be avoided?
During the demonstration at the Lausitzring, three possible accident scenarios were analyzed: IMA (Intersection Movement Assist), LTA (Left Turn Assist) and DNPW (Do Not Pass Warning).
We talk about IMA (Intersection Movement Assist) when a motorbike, proceeding on a busy road, is approaching an intersection with reduced visibility at which a car arrives at the same time from a secondary road. To make this situation even more critical, Ducati has chosen to insert a fixed obstacle to completely obscure the view of the motorbike both for the driver and for the car’s auxiliary systems. In this case, the danger sign is displayed on the car’s dashboard, signaling the arrival of the motorbike, suggesting that the motorist approach the intersection with great caution.
L’LTA (Left Turn Assist) instead it concerns an intersection in which both the motorbike and the car are traveling on the main road but in the opposite direction and the car wishes to turn left. In this situation the motorbike vehicle is less visible than a car, even through the auxiliary systems, with the risk of not being assessed well by those arriving. Also in this case, as soon as the motorist activates the direction indicator approaching the intersection, the warning signal of the arrival of the motorbike is displayed.
Il DNPW (Do Not Pass Warning) it is instead the case in which a motorbike, in a queue, wants to overtake a large vehicle that precedes it and which in turn has a car in front of it, not visible to the motorcyclist, which wants to turn left. In this case it is the motorcyclist who displays the warning system as soon as the system sees that both the car and the motorbike have activated the direction indicator.
Simone Di Piazza, Ducati Innovation Manager: “For Ducati the issue of road safety is truly important. We have already demonstrated this in the past, being the first motorcycle manufacturers in the world to have the entire range equipped with ABS Cornering and the first to introduce Blind Spot Detection. The work presented today makes us proud and we are convinced that communication between vehicles, when mature enough to be introduced on all motorbikes and cars, will have a fundamental role in reducing the number and severity of accidents involving motorcyclists”.
