The Kawasaki Heavy Industries Group established its Group’s new vision statement, describing what the Group envisions becoming in 10 years ― “Group Vision 2030: Trustworthy Solutions for the Future.” In order to provide solutions for social issues and create a hopeful future, we will transform our business structure into a form which promises faster growth in line with environmental changes.
In the field of "Near-Future Mobility," which is one of the fields we are focusing on, we are the first Japanese motorcycle manufacturer to adopt the Advanced Rider Assistance System (ARAS), with the aim of transforming the movement of people and goods. We began selling models equipped with this system in early 2022.
ARAS, which is an advanced rider assistance function for motorcycles, is just a rider assistance function, and the rider is ultimately responsible for properly operating the vehicle. Therefore, even if this system malfunctions, that must not interfere with the safe operation of the rider. To install ARAS in a mass-produced vehicle, we must clarify the impact of ARAS malfunction on the rider’s driving, that is, whether the rider is able to make appropriate decisions and operate the vehicle, even during a malfunction. However, it is difficult to create the same malfunction situation and evaluate this system safely in actual driving tests by general riders with different riding skills. In addition, no existing evaluation method exists because this is the first time this system was applied to motorcycles.
Therefore, we utilized our previously developed motorcycle riding simulator to conduct a riding test on a digital space to safely confirm the impact of an ARAS malfunction on the rider's riding. The types of malfunctions that could cause harm to the rider were extracted from the risk assessments. By reproducing the high-risk situation from situations in which each malfunction could cause danger to the rider, the rider’s decision and action during such situations were efficiently evaluated. A situation in which both the frequency of occurrence and the magnitude of harm to the rider are high is defined as a high-risk situation.
The evaluation results confirmed that the rider can safely operate the vehicle, even if it undergoes a malfunction.