Ride of the Robots

As AI and robotics advance, the fear that machines will one day rise up to supersede us becomes ever more legitimate. This concern is only fuelled by a creation such as Yamaha’s Motorbot – built to out-race a human on a motorcycle. And not just any human: nine-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi. It speaks, too, with a challenge for Rossi: “I was created to surpass you. I’m improving my skills every day.”

At least it’s honest. And in the three years since making its debut at the 2015 Tokyo Motor Show, Motorbot’s abilities have indeed grown. Unlike other AI vehicle projects, Yamaha’s plan wasn’t to build a self-driving bike, but a humanoid robot to pilot an unmodified motorcycle (in this case, a 1000cc Yamaha YZF-R1M). Beneath its carbon-fibre skin are actuators for operating the bike’s steering, throttle, clutch, brakes and gearshift pedal, as well as trackrecognition sensors and a machine-learning brain for honing its driving line and lap times. In its first year, the objective was merely to drive in a straight line at 100kph. Two years on, it was lapping tracks at 200kph, with its ambition sensor focused on exceeding human capability.

By the end of 2017, Motobot finally got to do what it was created for: race Rossi. At California’s Thunderhill Raceway Park, the machine clocked a lap at 1m 57.504s. The Italian racing legend, with almost 30 years’ experience to draw from, did it in 1m 25.740s – a cool 32 seconds quicker. The robot uprising abated, Yamaha plans to continue to advancing Motobot’s capabilities with the aim of developing ridersupport technology for its consumer line of bikes. Or, as Motobot might describe it, softening us up for the inevitable judgement day.

global.yamaha-motor.com