If you have a spare five minutes I recommend you read an opinion piece over at usridernews.com.

To summarise the piece the author makes the case that driverless cars will make riding inherently safe for motorcycle riders. On the other hand, the author sees a point in the future where ‘self directed’ vehicles as they put it are outlawed:

Google watchers and those with inside knowledge of the technology believe auto-pilot vehicles will first be deployed as delivery vehicles, taxis, and buses.  How quickly the technology transitions from utility vehicles to personal vehicles is anybody’s guess at this point, but the sad truth is that once a tipping point is reached, say 75% of vehicles are running on auto-drive, the push to rid the highways of “dangerous self driving vehicles” will begin in earnest.   In the NPR report, the author even alludes to a “future ban” on human operated vehicles.

When that happens, so will your ability to pick a destination on a map, load up the motorcycle and head out across this great country with your only worries being rain, bugs and that distracted driver who turns left in front of you.

I want to make a few quick points:

1. Agreement - I think  the usridernews.com article is essentially correct, riding a motorcycle will become safter, but eventually, riding it yourself will become illegal on public roads.
2. Gyroscoopes - All hope isn’t lost – the LIT motors C1 which we have reported on recently is effectively a motorcycle with a gyroscope. Granted it doesn’t look as exciting as riding a regular motorcycle but surely some innovative engineer can not only put those safety features in regular motorcycles making lawmakers less likely to ban them?
3. Speed - Driverless technology will probably be incorporated into motorcycles, and because they will be safer, they will be able to go a lot faster particularly on highways. In fact I think 20 years from now most journeys will be in two wheeled single passenger vehicles.
4. Renting - One of the great things about driverless vehicles is that we probably won’t own them ourselves. If you feel like it, for a few extra dollars you can rent that 500cc bike instead  of being stuck with Dad’s old 125cc that struggles to make it up the hill. (For the record my Dad had a very cool, occasionally operational, Kawasaki Ninja 900).
5. Turn off the auto-pilot - Even though 15-20 years from now every vehicle will be driverless, there will still be racetracks, deserts and national parks for riders to feel the thrill of riding a bike.

In a nutshell; don’t give up on riding that bike just yet!