Jaguar launch Bike Sense

Team Sky’s Innovation Partner Jaguar have unveiled new Bike Sense technology which will help keep cyclists safe on the road.

The range of new technologies use instinctive colours, sounds and touch inside the car to alert drivers to potential hazards and prevent accidents involving bicycles and motorbikes.

Sensors on the car will detect when another road user is approaching and identify it as bicycle or motorbike. Bike Sense will then make the driver aware of the potential hazard before the driver sees it.

But rather than using a generic warning icon or sound, which takes time for the driver’s brain to process, Bike Sense uses innovative lights and sounds that the driver will instinctively associate with the potential danger. To help the driver immediately understand where the bicycle is in relation to their car, these lights and sounds will only come from the direction the cyclist is coming from.

A bicycle bell will ring inside the car through the speaker nearest the bike so the driver is made aware if the bike is overtaking or coming past the vehicle on the inside. If a motorbike is detected a horn will beep instead.

If a bicycle or motorbike is coming up the road behind the car, an air cushion inside the top of the car seat will extend to ‘tap’ the driver on the left or right shoulder depending on the direction the bike is coming from. The idea is that the driver will then instinctively look over that shoulder to identify the potential hazard.

Alert system

As the cyclist get closer to the car, a matrix of LED lights, embedded in the window sills, dashboard and windscreen pillars, will glow amber and then red as the bike approaches and as the potential for a collision increases. The movement of these red and amber lights across these surfaces will also highlight the direction the bike is taking.

Dr Wolfgang Epple, Director of Research and Technology, Jaguar Land Rover, said: “Human beings have developed an instinctive awareness of danger over thousands of years. Certain colours like red and yellow will trigger an immediate response, while everyone recognises the sound of a bicycle bell.

“Bike Sense takes us beyond the current technologies of hazard indicators and icons in wing mirrors, to warnings that allow a faster cognitive reaction as they tap into the brain’s instinctive responses. If you see the dashboard glowing red in your peripheral vision, you will be drawn to it and understand straight away that another road user is approaching that part of your vehicle.”

For more on Jaguar's Bike Sense head HERE.