Once known for motorcycles, Yamaha is making a heavy push into the broader mobility space. This year’s Japan Mobility Show won’t open for another couple of weeks, but the brand has teased some of the creations they’ll be featuring at their booth.
Perhaps the strangest is this MOTOROiD:? motorcycle concept, with a construction that’s simulatanously lithe and beefy. The frame is meant to take a beating, because the AI-equipped bike is meant to learn to drive itself, autonomously; the “durable exoskeleton [is] engineered to withstand the trial-and-error impacts of the learning process,” the company says.
Furthermore, when it falls over, it “can decide on its own to get up, appropriately activating its different motors to stand upright and then maintain its own balance.”
The rationale behind a self-driving bike is a little murkier: “By giving the machine a degree of independent decision-making,” the company says, “MOTOROiD:? represents another step toward a new relationship in which it can grow alongside its user.”
Their TRICERA three-wheeler recalls the Morgan Super 3:
Built purely to provide visceral driving thrills, the low-slung vehicle differs from Morgan’s offering in that it steers with all three wheels.
Yamaha has a working prototype, and says its goal is to “maximize driver fun and achieve a new level of driver-machine unity.”
The Y-00B Base and Bricolage bicycles are e-bikes that don’t look like e-bikes. Here frame rigidity is achieved not through beefy tubing, but by doubling up on thinner tubing, giving the frames a slimmer look. The battery and drive unit, too, has been slimmed down. “It melds classic design aesthetics with modern technology,” Yamaha writes, “to create a truly unique look and style.”
The NACTUS VS TRE-X is a thre-wheeled electric wheelchair that allows the user to go off-road, and carry gear. The stability added by the third wheel “ensures comfortable travel even across rough terrain and unpaved paths where conventional wheelchairs often struggle,” the company says. The extended leg for the third wheel further earns its keep by offering a carrier rack atop it.
These will all be on display at the Japan Mobility Show, which opens on October 30th