With all the talk about self-driving cars, shouldn't more consideration be given to the potential for applying self-driving technology to E-bikes? E-bikes are smaller and lighter than cars, so the risks of them driving autonomously are not as severe. What's more, many uses are possible that would aide car-free lifestyles. For example:
- an electric tadpole/tricycle with enough power to carry a 200lb rider could also carry 200lbs worth of cargo/groceries when driving autonomously.
- using autonomous e-bikes/trikes for grocery delivery would be more efficient at slow speeds given present advances in cooler technology.
- self-driving e-bikes could deliver themselves to people in need of a bike-share bike who otherwise wouldn't be able to make it to a bike-share dock in time for it to be convenient. If they can summon or plan for the bike to meet them where they need it when they need it, bike-sharing becomes that much more user-friendly.
- Long distance hiking/biking: some people are able to hike/bike tour without worrying about resupply as much as others. Having autonomous e-trikes to deliver supplies when hiking would make it easier to hike with less backpack weight.
Can you think of other uses for self-driving e-bikes/trikes? Do you think that it is possible to have a compact/light enough self-driving system to work with them? Do you think that people would utilize self-driving e-bikes/trikes like they would self-driving cars, i.e. as an auto-rickshaw? Do you think it's possible to design a self-driving system for two-wheeled e-bikes or would that require training-wheels or some other add-on that would defeat the efficiency of a two-wheeler to begin with?
Maybe not the most exciting example to illustrate this thread:
More promising, maybe, but no demonstration: