From the left John Chatterton-Ross, FIM/FIM Europe Director of Public Affairs, Jesper Christensen, FIM’s Director of Public Affairs Commission, Silvio Manicardi, FIM Europe Vice President, Inés Ayala Sender and Wim van de Camp, members of the European Parliament, Steve Aeschlimann, FIM Executive Director Operations and Hennes Fischer ACEM ITS committee chairman and member of the CMC
The FIM Dinner Debate 2016 “Sharing the Road with Robots: When Motorcycling Meets Automation” took place in Brussels on 19th October.
Representatives from the motorcycling community, the industry and EU decision-makers exchanged over the future interaction between automated vehicles and powered two-wheelers, stressing the need to make roads safer for all transport modes. FIM announced during the evening its intention to join the Connected Motorcycle Consortium (CMC).
The event was hosted by two influential Members of the European Parliament, Mr Wim van de Camp (EPP, NL) and Mrs Inés Ayala Sender (S&D, ES), who opened the debate by depicting the great safety potential of Intelligent Transport Systems for motorcyclists but also the importance for politicians to strike the right balance between supporting innovation and avoiding safety hazards.
Mr Jos Driessen, FIM Board Member, welcomed the participants on behalf of the FIM and underlined the importance of a science based approach to road safety. He stressed that FIM promotes this in the same way it uses a science based approach to safety in sports.
Mr Antony Lagrange, coordinator of the European Commission GEAR 2030 “Highly automated and connected vehicles” Working Group outlined the need to act quickly, given the fact that autonomous driving systems are already being introduced on the market, together with as many stakeholders from the value chain as possible, and right, increasing general safety levels for all road users.
Mr Hennes Fischer from Yamaha (member of the CMC), ACEM ITS committee chairman and former FIM World record holder on speed over distance at 100 km and 1.000 km in 1981, echoed the importance of connectivity, demonstrating how this will be key to securing swiftly road safety benefits at a reasonable cost for all motorcyclists.
This view was supported by FIM’s Director of Public Affairs Commission, Mr. Jesper Christensen, who highlighted the important, quick changes in the technological and commercial landscape and the need to put motorcycles at the heart of these new developments.
The dinner ended with a lively Q&A session, stressing the differences between detection and recognition, the future challenges of “coding ethics” into automated vehicles and the need to be realistic and transparent about self-driving technologies.
In his closing remarks, Mr Steve Aeschlimann, FIM Executive Director Operations, thanked all participants for their contribution, reiterated the need to have inclusive dialogue on such matters as all users share the same roads. He outlined that for this purpose, FIM intends to become an associated member of the Connected Motorcycle Consortium.
Mr Silvio Manicardi, FIM Europe Vice-President commented: “The annual Dinner Debate has shown as usual the need for such discussion to enlarge the awareness among all parties and to explain the riders’ position on the delicate subject of automation. We want EU decision-makers to make sure that PTW-users are included in the discussion to increase road safety for all”.
The photo call outside the European Parliament in Brussels was supported this year by Triumph Motorcycles Ltd.
