Yamaha Just Won A Design Award For This Weird, Bending, Self-Leaning Robot Motorcycle

This win represents Yamaha's sixth time winning a Design Concept award at the Red Dot Awards, and three of those have been for MOTOROiDs.

Photo by: Yamaha

By: Janaki Jitchotvisut

Jul 7, at 9:06am ET

Add RideApart as a preferred source in Google

Comment

This is a strange and random question, I know, but would you happen to remember Zoids? I'm asking because every time I learn about a new Yamaha MOTOROiD: Λ development, there's some Pavlovian response buried deep inside my brain that triggers this opening theme to start playing in my head.

Every. Single. Time. Maybe it's just me? Or maybe not.

Anyway, you can choose to either listen to that as you read this piece, or not; it's all up to you. Me, I think it kind of fits the subject matter, mainly because the Yamaha MOTOROiD program is, and I'll quote Yamaha here, "designed to learn and evolve autonomously while showing the process of its growth-including its failures. This aims to create a new dynamic in which people and machines share time while learning and growing alongside one another."

Gallery: Yamaha MOTOROiD: Λ

Source: Yamaha

But wait; there's more! This all comes from a press release that Yamaha issued to announce that it's won yet another Red Dot Design award, this time for its latest Design Concept in the MOTOROiD program (we're now up to MOTOROiD: Λ, if you're playing along at home), which I feel is crucial context to keep in mind as you digest the very next line.

This vision is realized through three key elements: AI-based reinforcement learning, a design and colors that embrace even failure as a value, and a chassis engineered to enable movements that go beyond imagination.

I'm going to guess that this isn't just Yamaha being proud that its MOTOROiD: Λ can probably play rhythm games with you at home. Why? Because a few lines down, Yamaha states that, "Through MOTOROiD: Λ, Yamaha Motor is proposing a new perspective on durable goods in which products gain greater value over time through long-term companionship."

Not disposable; and certainly, it doesn't sound like any type of planned obsolescence. Instead, it's meant to be a moto robot friend. A long-term robot companion that you grow with and adapt to.

What do you think?

View

Comments

Is this not the natural evolution and progression of many, many, many, many anime and manga series, going back decades? I know this is mixing my fictional metaphors here, thus potentially crossing the nerd streams in a way that can't be uncrossed, but it's almost kind of ... nice? I mean, as long as it doesn't inadvertently bring about the Third Impact ....

Anyway, congratulations to Yamaha, as well as a question for you all: Will MOTOROiD: Λ or its successor get to the point where it can ride a Yamaha R1 on its own? If it does, could this be considered Yamahaception? As always, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.