Seeing a motorcycle without a rider pass by would definitely feel weird, would it not? That’s exactly what BMW unveiled at the BMW Motorrad Techday 2018 – a self-driving concept, showing a riderless R 1200 GS doing laps around a track.
Developed by graduate engineer Stefan Hans and his team, the vehicle independently drives off, accelerates, circles a winding test track and independently slows down to a stop. On top of that, the integrated side stand is deployed automatically when the motorcycle comes to a halt.
BMW stated that the project was developed to help engineers in integrating some safety features with the rider’s skill. In fact, nowhere does BMW claim to be making an autonomous production motorcycle that eliminates the need for rider input. According to BMW, “the underlying technology should serve as a platform for development of future systems and functions to make motorcycling even safer, more comfortable and increase the riding pleasure. The aim of the prototype is to gather additional knowledge with regards [to] driving dynamics in order to detect dangerous situations early on and thus support the driver with appropriate safety systems while turning at intersections or when braking suddenly, for example.”
The above statement makes it clear that the system still wants the rider to be in control of the bike, while the safety system will merely act as an aid. If a critical situation does arise, the system will inform, warn the rider, and if need be, intervene directly.
To conclude, BMW Motorrad has demonstrated how the rapid pace of digitization will change the future of motorcycling. BMW Motorrad is taking two-wheeler needs into consideration for tomorrow’s world of transport and preparing for it technically.
Startup
A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend to become registered, startups refer to new businesses that intend to grow large beyond the solo founder. At the beginning, startups face high uncertainty and have high rates of failure, but a minority of them do go on to be successful and influential. Some startups become unicorns; that is privately held startup companies valued at over US$1 billion.
Actions
Startups typically begin by a founder (solo-founder) or co-founders who have a way to solve a problem. The founder of a startup will begin market validation by problem interview, solution interview, and building a minimum viable product (MVP), i.e. a prototype, to develop and validate their business models. The startup process can take a long period of time (by some estimates, three years or longer), and hence sustaining effort is required. Over the long term, sustaining effort is especially challenging because of the high failure rates and uncertain outcomes. Having a business plan in place outlines what to do and how to plan and achieve an idea in the future. Typically, these plans outline the first 3 to 5 years of your business strategy.
Design principles
Models behind startups presenting as ventures are usually associated with design science. Design science uses design principles considered to be a coherent set of normative ideas and propositions to design and construct the company's backbone. For example, one of the initial design principles is "affordable loss".
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