Imagine riding a bike that stands itself up when you get off and walk away. Imagine if you didn’t have to wear safety gear or a helmet. As part of the company’s 100th anniversary celebrations — and a look forward to what might happen in the next 100 — BMW has unveiled what it calls the Motorrad Vision Next 100, the bike of the future.
The Motorrad Vision Next 100 is the fourth vehicle in BMW’s futuristic Vision Next 100 line-up, but unlike the four-wheeled motoring concept the motorcycle has some very clear design cues from the company’s earlier bikes. There’s a lot of the triangular frame of the R32 — BMW’s first motorbike — in the Vision’s seating position and roadster-esque naked design, for example.
The self-balancing parts in the concept bike, which “keep the motorcycle balanced both in motion and while stationary” are part of an entire suite of safety gadgets; that works alongside a smart visor on the rider’s helmet that acts as a HUD to display real-time information. Like other car manufacturers, BMW is betting on inter-vehicle communication to help keep future riders safe. No word on where the power comes from apart from it being “a zero-emission drivetrain”, though, but “the forms and execution of the power unit resemble the traditional BMW boxer engine”.
The Motorrad Vision Next 100 was presented alongside a similarly futuristic Rolls-Royce, called the Grand Sanctuary, driven by a virtual assistant for autonomous vehicle control which also “fulfils the occupants’ every wish throughout the journey” — kinda like Jarvis — and a self-driving Mini that’ll pick drivers up from wherever they are and transform its appearance and driving dynamics to uniquely suit that user.