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AUDI GROUP COMMITS TO MOTORCYCLE SAFETY
Ducati has renewed its commitment to guarantee what it says is the best level of safety for motorcyclists all over the world .
The Bologna based manufacturer was one of a major protagonists of the Demo Event organised at the Lausitzring ( Germany ) by the Connected Motorcycle Consortium to demonstrate the effectiveness of the motorbike-car connectivity systems developed during this consortium ' s research cycle .
The Connected Motorcycle Consortium ( CMC ) is an international association that brings together the main manufacturers of two-wheeled vehicles with the aim of including motorcycles in the future of connected mobility to improve the level of safety of motorcyclists . Car manufacturers have been studying and developing Vehicle to Vehicle ( V2V ) communication technologies for years and the CMC is working to also include the information sent by motorbikes , which have different needs and dynamics , so that these can be standardised when this technology will be integrated across the entire fleet of motorbikes and cars in circulation in the future .
The CMC was founded in 2016 , the year in which Ducati also became affiliated , and saw members initially involved in an accurate analysis of the most dangerous accidents between motorbikes and cars in terms of frequency and severity of the damage suffered by motorcyclists . Starting from this investigation , the cases in which connectivity could help to a greater degree were selected and the development of those methodologies capable of reducing the number of impacts and their risk for the safety of motorcyclists began . A fundamental aspect of this research was to limit the system ' s reaction time as much as possible since the reduction of the risk of an accident depends on how far in advance one of the two protagonists can be warned .
To demonstrate the effectiveness of the systems studied and developed , Ducati opted to collaborate with Lamborghini ( also part of the Audi Group ), which supported the project during the experimental phase by providing a Urus for case simulation use .
Ducati chose to work on the three most critical and dangerous accident cases , i . e . those which place the motorbike in a position of non-visibility towards oncoming cars or which place the motorcyclist in a situation in which he has no visibility of what is happening ahead . In both situations , communication between vehicles , integrated with the on-board sensors , can help reduce the number of accidents .
Ducati carried out the development of the technology together with various suppliers , including Bertrandt for the hardware part and Nfiniity for the operating system and the creation of the algorithms . The prototype in this development phase includes an additional screen on the motorbike on which warning signals are displayed which can inform the motorcyclist of any danger .
The cases analysed and demonstrated at the Lausitzring by Ducati and Lamborghini were IMA ( Intersection Movement Assist ), LTA ( Left Turn Assist ) and DNPW ( Do Not Pass Warning ).
The focus was placed on IMA ( Intersection Movement Assist ) when a motorbike , proceeding on a busy road , is approaching a reduced-visibility intersection at which a car is arriving at the same time from a secondary road . To make this situation even more critical , Ducati chose to insert a fixed obstacle to completely obscure the view of the motorbike both for the driver and for the car ' s auxiliary systems . In this case , the danger sign is displayed on the dashboard of the car , signalling the arrival of the motorbike , suggesting to the motorist to approach the intersection with great caution .
LTA ( Left Turn Assist ) instead concerns an intersection in which both the motorbike and the car are travelling
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