- Highest level of safety
- Cross-winds are sensed and compensated
- Haptic alerting of rider through his oscillating lateral movement
- Redundancy by combining the balancing senses of the human rider in combination with the self-balancing of a two-wheeler
- Affordable through intrinsic redundancies
- Energy efficient through semi-passive hydraulic damping control
- Climate friendly
- Suitable for leaning vehicles with 2, 3 and 4 wheels
- Applicable to vehicle speeds from 0 km/h to above 200 km/h
Every year 1.3 million people are killed on the world’s roads. This number is forecast to rise to 1.9 million by 2020. Safe8™ is an energy efficient balance control for leaning vehicles like motorcycles that makes them much safer to reduce the number of fatalities and injuries of motorcycle riders.
Safe8™ is build on the following principles:
- A semi-passive hydraulic damping system controls the vehicle in critical situations by creating a stabilizing force between leaning and non-leaning components of the vehicle.
- This stabilizing force is amplified through the balancing reflexes of the human rider that move his body from side to side in oscillations.
- An electro-rheological valve ensures that the stabilizing force in the leaning damper can be controlled over a wide range in real time.
- The electro-rheological valve also locks the leaning completely while standing still.
- During normal driving the vehicle is stabilized automatically through the gyroscopic forces of the two front wheels.
- It senses cross-winds and avoids the vehicle from drifting out of lane by interacting with the leaning damper, the brake system, powertrain and the fully variable electro-rheological suspension dampers.
- The oscillating movement of the rider provides direct feedback about the vehicle stability and alerts the rider before situations could potentially become unstable. That makes it safer than expensive direct tilt control systems.