Just the other day, we brought you news of Artificial Intelligence being used to evaluate a rider’s skill in handling a motorcycle. While the technology is quite impressive, it might prove a bit too costly for a lot of driving schools to implement.
Yamaha, on the other hand has come up with a simpler system that evaluates rider skill that still uses technology, but in a much more cost-effective way.
Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. has developed the Yamaha Riding Feedback System (YRFS) to evaluate riding skills and provide feedback in visual form to help riders advance their skills. The system will be introduced into the Yamaha Riding Academy (YRA) curriculum from April 10, 2021.
The YRFS uses a simple GPS-based logger device to acquire data for vehicle position and speed and then converts the values for acceleration, deceleration and cornering during the ride into visual form. Photos taken during the lesson of a participant’s body positioning while cornering and the riding data acquired will be listed on a feedback sheet given to the participant after the lesson. This is similar to technology already being used by several racing teams during practice and races.
By providing a comparison of the rider’s performance over the course of the lesson to better indicate areas needing attention together with the advice and comments given by the instructors, participants can review their points for improvement with greater clarity, thereby helping support the growth of their riding skills.
In the process of exploring new fields under Yamaha’s ideal of Jin-Ki Kanno (the seductive exhilaration felt when one with the machine), Yamaha Motor has conducted extensive research into human operation and vehicle dynamics. YRFS was developed based on the knowledge and technologies gained through this research.
As the system package is simple and can be used with any model, Yamaha will first kick off usage with safe riding activities in Japan, and then gradually bring YRFS to Thailand, China and other instruction sites overseas.
If Honda has the Safety Driving School, isn’t it time Yamaha Philippines started investing in a permanent home for the Yamaha Riding Academy?
