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A Canadian startup is working on an app that will bring new safety features to motorcycling, including some that are already on many late-model cars.
The company, Damon Motorcycles, is based in Vancouver and is led by co-founder Jay Giraud, a former professional snowboarder who went on to become a serial entrepreneur, including founding Mojio, a company that created a platform for collecting data on vehicles and keeping them connected. With Damon Motorcycles, the focus is not on connectivity and data, but on safety. The company web site also lists Buell Motorcycles founder Erik Buell as an "industry adviser" and former Skully founder Mitch Weller as a "marketing adviser." (Let's hope Damon is not turning to Weller for advice on financial controls.)
Some of the features the company is working on are ones you may already have in your car, such as blind-spot warning systems. This Instagram animation shows how it would work on a motorcycle.
Another safety feature would use forward-facing radar and a camera to warn the rider of an obstacle ahead. For example, if the rider didn't notice a car suddenly slowing ahead, a haptic warning would be transmitted through the handlebar grips, warning the rider to brake. Yet another feature is a dock for your smartphone that turns it into a rearview camera.
Damon points out that motorcycles are the most popular form of personal transportation in the world, but also the most deadly. These features, if they are implemented, will not trickle down any time soon to the millions of motorcycle commuters in places like Vietnam, India or China (the ones who make motorcycling the most common form of transportation), but will be seen in places like Europe and North America, whether as features on new motorcycles or aftermarket add-ons. Given that reality, would these features make motorcycling safer?
On one hand, most of us have complained at one time or another about lousy mirrors that mostly give us a view of our elbows. Those of us who are paying attention also increasingly worry about getting rear-ended at a stop light by a driver reading text messages on a phone. A rearview camera would add another layer of security in that scenario. I suppose the forward collision warning might also have some value, though I'd hope I was paying attention to what was in front of me, under any circumstance.
Blind-spot warnings? I thought my motorcycle didn't have blind spots. At least not if I turned my head.
Our previous articles here at Common Tread about the infiltration of technology into motorcycling and our most recent episode of High Side/Low Side have generated a lot of discussion of this issue. Are these features you'd like to see on your next motorcycle?
