BMW Showcases Autonomous R1200GS At CES

BMW made riders obsolete during a demonstration of its autonomous R1200GS motorcycle at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The self-driving bike starts, turns, accelerates, slows and stops all on its own and is a remarkable thing to see. You can check the bike out in action in the video from BMW Motorrad below.

The intention isn't to get rid of riders, however, but to show the features and technology that BMW is developing in safety and rider assistance. In recent years these advances have included tech that allows motorcycles and cars to communicate with one another and head-up display devices for helmets, in addition to refinements to traction control systems, ABS, and dynamic suspension.

BMW doesn’t offer any specific details on the tech that actually makes this marvel work and stresses that the bike will help propel research forward for systems on rider-piloted bikes. These areas include hazard detection, optimal line selection, and other riding dynamics.

We do learn in the above video, though, that the machine uses only those inputs a rider would make, rather than gyroscopes, to stay upright and perform its maneuvers.

We’re not far from the day when a light will blink at the optimal braking point in a corner, or offer an LCD map for where you need to be in a corner at a given speed. BMW is definitely at the forefront of these efforts, and we’re excited to see what it’ll think of next.