Motorcycle-Riding Robot Has A Mission: To Surpass Humans

Robocop is real. Well, almost. Yamaha’s new autonomous motorcycle-driving robot, Motobot, doesn’t fight crime, but it can seriously ride a motorcycle.

Motobot is still very much in the research and development stage, so the technical details are scarce. In a promo video posted by YouTube user Motorcycle Dreams, Motobot’s tagline is ‘Beyond Human Capabilities’.

But Yamaha is still very focused on their human riders. The company wants to eventually get Motobot to the point where it can ride a completely unmodified motorcycle around a track at speeds of 125 miles per hour (200 km/h), a task that is incredibly cool and futuristic, but also could make motorcycles safer for humans. Yamaha’s researchers believe that in creating a robot with those advanced capabilities, they can then use that technology to create “advanced rider safety and rider-support systems.”

Yamaha isn’t the only company building motorcycle-riding robots. A few years ago Castrol built Flossie a robot designed to ride a motorcycle more efficiently than humans.