MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi is widely considered to be professional motorcycling’s GOAT – Greatest of All Time. Racing against Yamaha’s MOTOBOT Ver.2, an autonomous motorcycle, is an interesting test. I won’t spoil the results but before you watch, guess who won and by how much. Keep in mind, Rossi isn’t riding his 200mph+, 250+ HP MotoGP Yamaha YZR-M1 beast of a bike. It looks like he’s riding a fairly stock Yamaha R1 – still a fast, powerful bike.
The GOAT vs MOTOBOT Ver.2
I think Rossi will win by 10 seconds…
The above is my guess, not the results.
I won’t say what the results were.
It does make me wonder how a racer who is not the greatest of all time would do.
If it helps, the MOTOBOT Ver.2 would kick my ass on that (or any) track. 🙂
Yea, me too. I have had enough close calls to slow the heck down and just enjoy the ride!
So many questions. Does the Motobot have a mechanism to sense traction and correct for slides, or does it assume a certain level of traction? Does it “learn” the track or is it simply programmed with the layout and “lines” to use? Is it allowed to take “risks,” where randomness could affect outcomes? Depending on answers to questions like these it could be extremely impressive, or relatively unimpressive. A track like this is a highly controlled environment with few variables, and motorcycles are highly self-stable at any normal riding speed.
Machines don’t take risks.
Machines don’t have intuition.