Motorcycles are 50 times more likely to crash than cars. This tool can help.

If you are driving a car, hazards such as slippery roads could cause no more than a minor inconvenience. On a motorcycle, however, it is a different story. Adverse road conditions might result in a crash or even, at times, be fatal. Some estimates put that risk of crashing as 50 times higher than in a car.

With that in mind, NIRA Dynamics has developed a set of precise warnings that can help motorcycle riders deal with the driving situation before it becomes dangerous. The local hazard warning system — named Road Surface Alerts (RSA) — uses anonymized data from millions of vehicles to provide precise warnings.

Johan Hägg, Head of Marketing and Communications at NIRA Dynamics explained: “When your car is in a slippery situation, the electronic stability control system will redirect the car and make it stable again. This isn't possible on a motorcycle, which only has those two points of contact with the road."

The solution? Find out beforehand about road conditions, so you can either avoid them completely or adjust your speed when about to enter slick surfaces.

Easy riders

NIRA Dynamics collaborates with the Volkswagen Group in a project that allows them to collect data from the wheel speed sensors in cars.

“It monitors the rotational speed of the tire," Hägg said. “If we compare the different rotational speeds of the axles, we can detect slipperiness."

This information is put together with GPS positioning and some other data, such as windshield wiper speed and the ambient temperature around the car to build an accurate picture of road conditions. “Everything is sent to the cloud and aggregated, and we create map layers of the roads," he added.

HERE Map Data is the foundation onto which all these details are added. Drivers then receive a warning on their dashboard so they can slow down, or they can use the RSA navigational application and plan a journey that avoids the hazardous area altogether.

Two-wheel appeal

While there are systems on the market that provide motorcycle alerts, Hagg believes that RSA has the advantage of collecting far more data than anyone else.

“Statistics show that it is a factor of 100 to one, compared to systems based on data collected from the car's braking system, for example," he said.

Partnering with HERE has allowed NIRA Dynamics to reach a larger customer base. The HERE platform has also enabled capabilities such as map matching and routing.

RSA is available in RGNT motorcycles across the US and Europe, as well as in Volkswagen vehicles globally. In addition to slippery conditions, riders receive alerts if there are potholes, rough roads, or poor weather conditions such as heavy rain. The hopes are that other motorcycle companies will take note.

“We get a lot more information from vehicles than you would without our system being installed," Hägg said.