Yamaha Motor has announced that it wants, not just to reduce motorcycle casualties, but work with its customers towards ‘a world without accidents.’ The company has already confirmed its support to the Stockholm Declaration from 2020, which set a target of reducing fatalities by 50% by 2030.

Yamaha’s Safety Vision is even more ambitious than that, though no specific targets are set.

Instead, the company has outlined three key principles to move this forward. One is technology on the bike to help decision making and hazard recognition – an example is the new Tracer 9 GT+, launched at the EICMA Show in October, which features a radar controlled braking system, which adjusts the balance between front and rear brakes according to the relative speed of the vehicle in front. This focus on rider aids is based on the fact that 70% of all motorcycle crashes occur within two seconds of an incident starting – in other words, there isn’t time for the rider to react, however good their reactions.

The other two principles of Safety Vision are connectivity (increasing links to the Cloud from riders and machines to provide safety feedback) and improving riding skills. But if all this sounds rather worthy, then don’t worry. ‘Jin-Ki Kanno’ is the other aspect of Yamaha’s Safety Vision, which seeks to, “deliver users the seductive exhilaration felt when they truly become one with their machine.”

Is a world without accidents a realistic goal?

Jim Freeman, Chair of the BMF, said: “Laudable ambitions. I’d suggest reading Matthew Crawford’s ‘Why we drive’ for a different take on automated and assisted safety systems and their effect on the users, on both 2 and 4 wheels. He quotes Ralph Nader’s comment on the Corvair, ‘Unsafe at any speed’ translating that to ‘Fun at any speed’. I can think of Yamahas that might fall into that category, like the early TZ700/750 fours. As Chaz Mortimer, a spectacularly successful privateer racing them, reportedly said, ‘The main difficulty is trying to make it go in a straight line, on the power it’ll spin the rear wheel, in every gear, in the dry.”

Written by Peter Henshaw

Top image courtesy of global.yamaha-motor.com