Honda patents motorcycle design with drone

An upcoming Honda motorcycle could come with drone

Drones are pretty popular these days, becoming an essential tool for videographers. There are quite a few motorcycle riders into drones too, as they're now small enough to bring along and make for great shots when at scenic rides with friends.

Many fields — from military, police, logistics to civilians — find a drone useful. Just recently, NASA's Perseverance Rover landed on Planet Mars and launched its own drown to get a bird's eye view of its surroundings. But perhaps one of its yet untapped uses could be motorcycle safety.

Honda’s Research & Development (R&D) division, has recently filed for a patent for what looks like an electric motorcycle equipped with a drone at the back. The quadcopter drone is built-in. Just like an 80’s cartoon, it's housed in a canopy that opens to deploy the drone.

Though the patent filed featured a lot of drawings, it was lacking some details as to why Honda would fit a drone on its electric motorcycle in the first place.

Bird’s eye view

The most likely reason we can think of is to enhance the rider’s field of vision by giving him or her a bird’s eye view of the road surrounding him. This drone could be launched to look far down the road and give the rider more information of what's coming ahead, or perhaps it can hang back and record the rider while going through a scenic section of road.

If this is the purpose, chances are, the drone will be practically autonomous, flying by itself all while keeping track of where the bike is while avoiding obstacles.

That being said, to control it or at least give it commands might require an advanced type of HUD-equipped helmet or a TFT screen that will display all the info that the drone feeds to the rider.

If not in use, the patent suggests the drone can also act as a cooling device. Even in its housing, it can turn on its rotors and draw out hot air generated by the electric motor out to the bike’s tail.

Who knows? If this goes into production, motorcycle riders may indeed have a better look at what lies ahead far better than the radar technology currently being used. It could also be a really great way to take photos of its rider.