Now more than ever, technology is being used to improve road safety. It all started with basic stuff like ABS and traction control. But now, things like advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and connected mobility solutions are becoming mainstream.
Now, most cars and some bikes come standard with some form of ADAS, but connected mobility is something we can expect in the next few years. In essence, connected mobility means that your vehicle can communicate and interact with the road and other vehicles. It’s integrated with the vehicle’s autonomous driving system in the sense that it can speed up, slow down, and even maneuver the vehicle depending on its surroundings.
Think of it as next-gen adaptive cruise control.
This is where Brembo steps in, as it has just acquired a stake in Spoke Safety, a US-based startup specializing in connected mobility tech. On its website, it says that “Spoke is transforming road safety and rider connectivity by delivering the first connected IoT ecosystem for the vulnerable road users (VRU) to deliver contextual awareness and insight for each moment of the journey.”
So yes, it’s clear that Spoke knows a thing or two about making vehicles automatically communicate with each other and their surroundings.
So, what does Brembo, a leading manufacturer of braking systems for all sorts of vehicles have to do with connected mobility tech? The answer is simple, really. All vehicles have brakes, and all vehicles use their brakes to slow down—an essential ingredient in connected mobility tech.
To put that more concretely, Daniele Schillaci, the CEO of Brembo, explains that the company’s braking systems will soon be able to communicate with the entire road ecosystem, as well as other vehicles. “Our vision for the near future is to enable the braking system to communicate and interact not only with the equipped vehicle but with the entire road ecosystem, including other vehicles, infrastructures, and communication networks, enhancing the driving experience and safety,” he said.
At present, Brembo and Spoke Safety are already working on a research project in the Brembo Inspiration Lab in Silicon Valley. The project focuses on advanced software and artificial intelligence.
Now, I get it, adding all these intelligent systems is a good way of improving safety and preventing accents—most of the time. But you can’t deny that connected mobility, especially in its current state, is far from perfect. I mean, just take a look at how Tesla’s self-driving cars have killed motorcyclists, pedestrians, and other vulnerable road users in the past.
If we look at things from a motorcyclist’s perspective, having our bikes slow down all of a sudden because they detect some sort of upcoming road hazard could cause an accident, even if the rider in charge is more than capable of dealing with said hazard themselves.
And as technology continues to gradually take control away from the driver and rider, the next generation of road users is being bred to be lazy, and lacking the fundamental skills of actually riding and driving. If we rely solely on ADAS and connected mobility tech to bring our vehicles to a stop, then who's to say what’s going to happen if, for whatever reason, these things stop working?
Something as simple as a weather disturbance, infrastructure maintenance, or natural calamity can cause these systems to break down. And then what? If tomorrow’s road users don’t know how to drive without these systems, our roads are sure to be chaotic and extremely dangerous.
What do you think? Are these advanced connected mobility solutions potentially causing more problems than solutions? Or is this the inevitable way forward for mobility? Let us know in the comments.
