Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Yahama’s Robo-motorcyclist Tears Around a Racetrack at 124 MPH

October 27, 2017

And it’s totally mesmerizing to watch in action. The video above shows the company’s Motobot—literally, a robotic motorcyclist that sits atop a standard Yamaha and controls and balances the bike—as it charges around a racetrack and tries to beat a time set by world champion Valentino Rossi.

As IEEE Spectrum notes, Motobot doesn’t deal with new environments the way an Uber or Waymo autonomous car can. But it uses GPS and inertial measurements to place itself on a high-res map of a track to within an inch, and then uses that information to control the bike so that it can follow a course. And it does so at speeds of up to 124 miles per hour in a straight line.

Sadly, it can’t keep up with Rossi, though: it took 117.50 seconds to perform a lap, compared with the pro’s 85.74 seconds. Maybe next time, Motobot.

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Large language models can do jaw-dropping things. But nobody knows exactly why.

And that's a problem. Figuring it out is one of the biggest scientific puzzles of our time and a crucial step towards controlling more powerful future models.

OpenAI teases an amazing new generative video model called Sora

The firm is sharing Sora with a small group of safety testers but the rest of us will have to wait to learn more.

Google’s Gemini is now in everything. Here’s how you can try it out.

Gmail, Docs, and more will now come with Gemini baked in. But Europeans will have to wait before they can download the app.

This baby with a head camera helped teach an AI how kids learn language

A neural network trained on the experiences of a single young child managed to learn one of the core components of language: how to match words to the objects they represent.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.