Yamaha’s Motobot, the robot motorcycle rider challenges racing legend Valentino Rossi to a race
Soon the superbikes races could feature a whole new contestant thanks to Yamaha. Yamaha has unveiled its motorcycle driving Motobot, a robot designed to ride superbikes and take on the human races in motorcycle races.
Yamaha unveiled Motobot at the Tokyo Motor Show, which is underway in Japan. This initial version travels slowly and needs training wheels to avoid tipping over in a turn, so it’s not about to compete on the MotoGP circuit just yet.
Yamaha, however, says Motobot could soon be blasting along race track at 200KPH and offering serious competition to human racers. In fact, Yamaha has put racing legend Valentino Rossi on notice, as you’ll see in the promo video below.
As if the footage wasn’t hair-raising enough, Yamaha has given Motobot a childish, robotic voice, and having the robot biker call out MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi. “I was created to surpass you,” it says. “I am improving my skills every day.” Spooky. There’s no word on when (or if) the two will ever face each other, but the video certainly hints at the possibility.
