Yamaha’s
Motobot
Fairly recently,
self-driving vehicles have made an entrance into our society. With companies
like Google, Tesla, and BMW pioneering this new trend and cultural desire,
Yamaha decided to add its own flavor into this field. Motobot, as Yamaha calls
it, is developing a “humanoid robot” that can ride a motorcycle on its own. The
way that Yamaha’s Motobot differs from Google’s or Tesla’s self-driving car is
that it is aimed at having the robot drive an unmodified motorcycle, and maybe
a car in the future, as opposed to an internal computer operating a modified
car.
The Motobot is
still in its developing stage, but Yamaha is striving for it to be better at
driving than humans. According to the video they released, it can already reach
over 100 kilometer per hour and over 6,600 revolutions per minute. They
obviously don’t plan on stopping their progress here. Yamaha wants it to be
able to lap a racetrack going at least 200 kilometers per minute by 2017. Although
Yamaha has not explicitly mentioned that the Motobot will be used for anything
other than racing motorcycles at high speeds, one must consider the
implications if they were to expand this to everyone.
In the
hypothetical situation that the Motobot could be used to drive unmodified
vehicles, one downside is if the general public feels unsafe with having a
robot operate their vehicle. However, this concern isn’t unique to Yamaha, as
this conversation has happened with the discussion of other self-driving
vehicles. It can be unnerving to allow a robot, a foreign object to most,
driving your vehicle, and potentially putting your life at risk. What if it
short-circuits or malfunctions? On the other hand, humans have bad days as well
and are obviously prone to mistakes, so the validity of that argument is still
up for debate.
If this project
does expand to the point when the Motobot can make its own decisions on how to
get somewhere the fastest, this could be a very important step forward for
humanity. If Motobots became somewhat easily accessible to everyone, our everyday
lives would change drastically. People wouldn’t have to get a new self-driving
car. Instead they could get the Motobot system and it would drive the car they
already have. Motobot could make transportation faster and more efficient, thus
increasing our capabilities. We would spend less time in the car and in
traffic, which would reduce CO2 emissions, and also allow us more
time to work and spend time with our family.
Sources:
Griffin Nesfield
Personally, I don't know if I would feel safe driving on the road and looking over to see an automated robot driving a motorcycle. As of right now it is only being used for racing at high speeds, but if this project moves on to driving unmodified cars, I see some risks involved. There are day-to-day activities that happen throughout the day such as flaggers or light stops if a light suddenly goes out. Also, how will these cars respond to emergency vehicles who need to drive quickly to the scene of the crime/incident? We still need humans to make those decisions. Technology is advancing too quickly, and putting our lives in the hands of automated drivers does not sound like something people will be comfortable with. It could only work if these automated drivers are paired with a human driver. Similarly, just like all pieces of technology, this can be hacked and used by terrorists to attack or harm citizens. It would be best to pair this with a human, just like we do with airplanes.
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