Ducati, Lamborghini Showcase Connected Rider & Driver Tech

Automobili Lamborghini and Ducati, two Italian sports car and motorcycle manufacturers, have unveiled a prototype motorcycle-to-car communication system that warns drivers of impending danger.

The Bologna-based Ducati was one of the leading players at the Connected Motorcycle Consortium's Demo Event, which was held at the Lausitzring race track in Germany to demonstrate the effectiveness of motorbike-car connectivity systems developed during this cycle of the consortium's research.

The Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC) is an international association of leading two-wheeled vehicle manufacturers that aims to include motorcycles in the future of connected mobility to improve motorcyclist safety.

For years, car manufacturers have been researching and developing Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) communication technologies, and CMC has been working on including information sent by motorcycles (which have different needs and dynamics) so that it can be standardised in the future when the technology is integrated into the entire motorbike and car fleet in circulation.

Lamborghini assisted Ducati in the trial stage of the project by providing a Urus for use case simulations in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the systems being researched and developed. Ducati decided to focus on the three most critical and dangerous accident scenarios: those in which motorcycles are obscured in relation to oncoming cars or those in which motorcyclists are unable to see what is happening in front of them. Communication between vehicles equipped with on-board sensors could help reduce the number of accidents in these situations.

Ducati developed the technology in collaboration with a number of suppliers, including Bertrandt for the hardware and Nfiniity for the operating system and algorithm development. During this stage of development, the prototype has an additional screen on the motorcycle that displays warning signals that can alert the motorcyclist to any danger.

The cases studied and demonstrated by Ducati and Lamborghini at the Lausitzring were IMA (Intersection Movement Assist), LTA (Left Turn Assist), and DNPW (Do Not Pass Warning).

The IMA (Intersection Movement Assist) case considers a low-visibility intersection where a motorbike on a busy road approaches an intersection where a car is arriving at the same time from a secondary road.

Ducati chose to include a fixed obstacle in order to completely obscure the view of the motorcycle from both the car driver and the car's auxiliary systems. In this case, a warning signal appears on the dashboard of the car, alerting the driver to the arrival of the motorbike and advising the driver to approach the intersection with extreme caution.

LTA (Left Turn Assist) refers to an intersection in which both the car and the motorcycle are travelling on the main road but in opposite directions, and the car wishes to turn left. In this case, the motorbike is less visible than the car, even with auxiliary systems, and the oncoming motorist may not properly evaluate it. In this case, a warning signal for the motorcycle will be displayed as soon as the motorist turns on the blinkers when approaching the intersection.

Meanwhile, a DNPW (Do Not Pass Warning) occurs when a motorbike in a traffic queue wishes to overtake a large vehicle in front of it, which in turn has a car ahead of it that wishes to make a left turn but is not visible to the motorcyclist. In this case, the warning is displayed to the motorcyclist as soon as the system detects that both the car and the motorcycle have turned on their blinkers.