Goldwing owners – or riders of any other Honda – could soon benefit from a navigation system which reroutes your ride to avoid bad weather, according to a recent patent filed by the company. The big H is working hard to keep the Goldwing ahead in the high tech rider aid stakes, what with rival manufacturers adopting features like collision avoidance and radar-assisted adaptive cruise control.

Honda’s new navigation system will, according to the patent, make use of online weather data automatically rerouting to avoid rain storms and the like. It could potentially make use of live information from the countless Honda cars on the road and even be available as a smartphone app, so might even be something anyone could download and use. As more and more cars and bikes on the road are equipped with radar, live information from them (rather than on the internet) could also be used to detect problems on the road ahead. Honda is also working on making the Goldwing’s weather protection automatic, so if it starts raining, the electric screen raises; if the ambient temperature drops below a certain level, the heated grips could kick in.

It’s all a far cry from the traditional method of seeing a dirty great cloud on the horizon and aiming around it.

Jim Freeman, Chair of the BMF, said this: “I don’t need overtrousers, I’ve got a Goldwing’. Good luck with that. Given that many Goldwings don’t appear to be ridden in the wet, I’m not sure that Honda are looking in the right direction, but what do I know? I’m not one of their potential market, that’s for sure. I don’t want a Tesla either…”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Images courtesy of Honda