Harley-Davidson developing Adaptive Cruise Control

New patents show promising new technology

Cruise control on motorcycles may be unheard of for many motorcycle riders. Who can blame them? These added gizmos are only available on motorcycles that have a price tag of a luxury car. In the very near future though, more and more motorcycles may have this feature as standard, since laws on safety are evolving day by day. Many manufacturers are proactively doing their own share to make motorcycles safer to ride than ever.

Just recently, Harley-Davidson (HD) filed for a patent for what seems to be an 'adaptive' cruise control system that could be offered in their future models. For cars, the adaptive cruise control is pretty straight forward: sensors in the car scan the road for vehicles ahead and adjust the speed of the car in order to maintain a certain distance from the vehicle in front while keeping as close to the set speed as possible.

On a patent dated August 15, the American motorcycle manufacturer is developing a cruise control system that can not only detect a vehicle ahead, but also understands if there's more than one vehicle on the same lane. This feature makes it useful not only when riding solo but also in a group ride in staggered formation, allowing the motorcycle to adjust accordingly.

This new system is said to be able to distinguish between a car or a motorcycle, and it also allows the rider to pick a vehicle to adapt the speed with.

Additionally, this new adaptive cruise control could easily be combined with the autonomous braking system that HD had patented last year, making future HD models safer to ride than ever.