MUNICH: BMW Motorrad unveiled two innovative motorcycle products at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas today in the form of helmet with an in-built heads-up display and laser light technology for motorcycles.
With just a fraction of a second required for riders to find themselves in a dangerous situation, the new helmet incorporating a heads-up display (HUD) is able to keep vehicle information directly in the rider’s field of vision without having the need to glance down at the instrument panel.
All displays are freely programmable to provide the best-possible support for rider-safety; only information that is helpful and relevant to the current situation should be displayed to the rider at any given moment.
The display options comprises of safety-relevant information that includes technical status of the motorcycle, such as tyre pressure, oil level and fuel level, travel speed and selected gear, speed limit and road sign recognition, plus warnings of impending dangers.
By means of the future vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, it might also be possible to display information in real time, for example to give due warning of any sudden hazards.
Furthermore, the HUD also allows the visualisation of content designed to increase rider comfort such as a planned route along with navigation advice prior to commencing a journey.
The HUD unit can also provide other interesting possibilities such as a forward pointing action camera installed within the helmet, can record video footage of the journey.
A second camera oriented towards the rear could at some point in the future perform the function of a ‘digital rear-view mirror’.
And, this technology also enables the visualisation of other riders in a motorcycle group – keeping the locations of riding companions known at any given moment.
The helmet has been fitted with an integrated mini-computer and loudspeakers and can be controlled from the left-hand handlebar fittings using the BMW Motorrad multicontroller.
As well as operating the camera, this allows the rider to comfortably select the information required and can be integrated in existing helmets, while having an operating time or about five hours with two replaceable batteries.
The company is looking to further develop its new innovation before reaching series production within the next few years
However, BMW Motorrad isn’t the first company to come up with this idea with
Skully
already having achieved that with its
P1
concept in 2013 that came with heads-up display, virtual rearview mirror, smartphone connection and voice controls.
It subsequently went on sale in the US as the
Skully AR-1
– priced at US$1,499 (RM6,600).
With regards to light technology, that’s already available in the new BMW 7 Series as well as in the BMW i8, BMW Motorrad has now adopted this technology for motorcycling applications.
Not only can the headlamp with laser light technology generate a particularly bright and pure-white light, its high-beam has a range of up to 600m – double that of conventional headlights.
Moreover, the laser technology has a very long service life and although it is rather costly for use in motorcycles, BMW Motorrad is still keen on making it available for its motorcycles once economies of scale takes effect to being about a downward trend in price.
BMW Motorrad helmet with HUD
BMW K 1600 GTL concept with laser light technology
Keyword: BMW Mottorad has HUD for helmets and laser light for bikes