Bosch Wants To Put Rockets On Your Motorcycle…

No, this isn’t Will E. Coyote using Acme rockets to chase down the Road Runner kind of technology, although that would be fun too. This instead is a much tamer but possibly life-saving kind of rocket.

The German technology firm Bosch is developing a high-pressure thruster system that forces the gas out of a nozzle to help right a bike in the event of a highside or a lowside.

Why would you even need something like that? Imagine you're carving up a corner and suddenly come across a gravel patch while leaned over. Physic states, in most cases this should result in a low side crash and a couple of bruises or even broken bones, relative to the speed. Well, the engineers at Bosch don’t want that to happen and are already working on what they call an "anti-slide technology."

This system uses pressurized gas to provide lateral force and avoid a slide. Basically, the same principle spaceships operate on to manoeuvre. In this case, however, thanks to gravity, whenever the motorcycle detects a lateral slide it deploys a compressed gas thruster to counter the lateral force. The precise calculations of the slide and applying correct force are done by Bosch's inertial measurement units.

This technology can be a possible lifesaver when there's a chance of a motorcycle losing grip at high speeds while riding down a gravel road. With the thrusters, the sliding action can counterbalance and help the motorcycle tyres come back in line till traction is regained. If integrated correctly, it can also complement cornering ABS extremely well.

Although it’d be kind of fun to see rockets on a commuter motorcycle, don’t hope for that anytime soon. Currently, the technology is as expensive as the moon and can be used just once. Will E. Coyote will have to wait.