Why I'm Cautiously Optimistic About BMW Motorrad's Vision Next 100 Project

BMW Group recently tasked itself with determining what the future of transportation might look like. As part of the exercise, it had each of the four brands within the group—BMW, Rolls Royce, Mini, and BMW Motorrad—design its own concept vehicle, the latest being the Vision Next 100: “The Great Escape” motorcycle that was recently unveiled in Santa Monica, California.

As with the vehicles introduced by its BMW Group counterparts, the Next 100: “The Great Escape” pairs bold design elements to technologies that would put my grandpa in a daze. It’s conceptualized around a zero-emissions drivetrain, connectivity system that enables it to interact with rider/driver and the outside world, plus intervention system that would take over in the event of a potential accident. However, opposite its futuristic four-wheel siblings, this Next 100 vehicle features a self-balancing system and frame composed of a mix of materials to make it flexible in the right areas and capable of going around a corner without the use of traditional suspension.

BMW says that, through its communication with the outside world and ability to intervene just before a crash, riders would not be required to wear any protective apparel. Instead, they would be cloaked in an advanced riding suit that would help control body temperature. Even in the future, riding in winter shouldn’t mean being uncomfortable.

Further, the rider would wear a smart visor that “spans the...entire field of view and provides not only wind protection but also relevant information,” BMW suggests.

I wish I could say more about the technologies, but that would be like saying I’m going to explain how the cure for cancer works; at the moment, the majority of these features are not real things, and not even BMW fully understands how they all might work.

The exception here is the self-balancing system, which BMW has apparently already developed (or purchased), as evidenced by the Next 100 vehicle sitting stationary, on its two wheels after being rolled out for the presentation.

For me, that small detail brings up a very important point: If it’s already possible to create a working model of a technology, why suggest that this is a technology of the future? Or a technology that won’t become the standard until something like 30-plus years from now—if not more? I don't understand the second clause.

Lit Motors, a company based out of San Fransisco, has already built a two-wheel prototype called the C-1, which uses control-moment gyroscopes (CMGs are attitude control devices that are generally used in spacecraft and satellites) and gimbal assemblies to balance itself at a stop and in motion. If you can already make a bike balance on its own two wheels (whether BMW is using this technology or something similar, I'm not sure), then who's to say future bikes won't be dramatically different? How can you predict the future of anything if you can’t begin to imagine the technologies that you’ll have access to at that point in time? What if in 20-30 years there’s a technology that allows a bike to hover in place?

Hell, maybe we won’t even be on the road in 40-100 years. Teleportation, anyone?

Along that same vein, vehicle-to-vehicle communication is looking more and more like it will be the norm in the not-so-distant future, and I have to imagine that there will be advances in that technology well before a BMW Next 100-type vehicle is ever fully imagined. Sure, the systems of the future could be significantly advanced. My only question is, why get so excited over the integration and use of a technology that seems to already be on the horizon?

If I can't get excited about technologies incorporated into the Next 100 concept that aren't futuristic enough, then I should at least be excited about the so-called flex frame and adaptive tires that BMW also mentioned briefly in its presentation. And I am, to an extent. Only to me, they seem like little more than a fantasy than anything else, because BMW can't actually substantiate the claim. They want to think that a motorcycle's frame will be able to flex in a way that allows it to take a corner without suspension, just like I want to think that a jacket of the future will enable me to fly. It's cool to imagine, but is it something to get overly excited by and believe to be true? In my opinion, it's not.

Interestingly, one of the things that caught a lot of people on the interwebs off guard was the riding suit. And it surprises me that BMW of all people would be the ones to suggest that you will not need any protective apparel in the future. Perhaps you will be able to predict and avoid accidents in the future through improved vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems and override technologies. But suggesting that its possible to ride without protective apparel would be to suggest you can prevent 100% of accidents. Because even a 1% margin of error would be reason to say, “Hey, maybe even in the future you should at least throw a helmet.”

Perhaps BMW Group’s exercise will encourage other companies to look down the road as well. Imagine if Alpinestars, or Arai, or Dainese presented us with a concept for what gear would look like 40-100 years from now. Because I could really go for self-lacing Sidi boots.

Whatever BMW Group's reason for actually investing in the Next 100 program, I commend them for it. I might not believe that transportation will look anything close to what the Next 100 vehicles suggest it will, but the fact that they went through with the concepts and actually built them shows a willingness to challenge itself. For a company like BMW, an unimaginative approach to product is the enemy. And the Vision Next 100 vehicles show their minds are anything but stuck in the present. They aren't waiting to see what the future holds, they are going to help shape it.

As for the bike itself, its design is bold, but that's what anything as forward-thinking as the Next 100 vehicle needs to be. To design anything that looked like an evolution of a current S1000RR would have been a mistake. I love that its lines harkens back to the BMW R32, and that BMW doesn’t suggest it will be a completely automated riding experience. Riding a motorcycle will always be about the freedom and connection between you and the bars, and that will never change, BMW suggests.

Now to go and tell my Grandpa, who just figured out that you can Google “How to mount a turbo charger to your B-King” from his phone, that the motorcycle of the future will be all electric and fully capable of communicating with the outside world. This should be interesting.