The latest piece of car tech to cross over into the motorcycle world, it seems, will be the automatic start/stop system.
Honda pioneered the tech on its PCX125 scoot back in 2010, and now Yamaha has introduced a fuel-saving stop/start system on its new Janus scooter, a 125cc, slightly retro scoot weighing 97 kg (214 lb) and targeted at female riders in the Vietnamese market, where a massive 2.85 million motorcycles and scoots are sold per year.
The fuel-saving feature will roll out on the Deluxe and Premium models, but not the Standard. The Premium model also gets a smart key.
Pricing for the Standard is around 27.5 million Vietnamese Dong, or a little over US$1200.
With the BMW C650GT now starting to integrate blind spot warning lights, it's interesting to think what other tech from the car world we'll be seeing on two wheels.
Adaptive cruise seems like a stretch; we've only just really started getting proper cruise control on bikes in the last few years. Auto emergency stop could be an absolute death sentence for a biker, and I can't see much use for lane departure warnings, because motorcycles seem to keep people awake and aware far better than cars do. Maybe laser headlights like Audi and BMW are doing? Gesture control? Electric turbocharging?
…Maybe not.
Source: Yamaha
