BMW, in partnership with Bosch again, is bringing out yet another tech accoutrement for their motorcycles, with the aim of making long distance motorcycling a breeze. They know that many of their riders are hard core long distance travellers, so they have been working on new features to make long distance riding easier and have come up with Active (or Adaptive) Cruise Control - 'ACC'.

So what does it do? Well it works like car cruise control by letting the rider set their chosen cruising speed. Once they have done this and set the ACC, they can release the throttle and the BMW Motorrad ACC system takes over regulating the speed, so that the rider can sit back and admire the scenery. This system uses sensors too, so that not only can it run the bike at a set speed, but it can also vary the motorcycle's speed, according to the speed of the vehicle in front. In a nutshell, it can  slow down or speed up, if it is safe to do so, in accordance with the speed of the other traffic on the road. All without the rider lifting a finger!

It is even more sophisticated than that though, the rider can choose between three tailing distances to find their preferred option and can even decide how aggressively they want to ride by deciding between 'comfortable' or 'dynamic' modes on the ACC.

BMW says about the system :
“The new ACC provides maximum comfort for the demanding touring motorcyclist by automatically regulating the speed set by the rider and the distance to the vehicle driving in front. The system automatically regulates the vehicle speed when the distance to the vehicle in front is reduced and keeps the distance defined by the rider. This distance can be varied in three stages. Both the riding speed as well as the distance to the vehicle in front can be set conveniently using a button. The individual settings are displayed on the TFT instrument cluster. The new BMW Motorrad ACC has two selectable control characteristics: comfortable or dynamic, in which the acceleration and deceleration behaviour is changed accordingly. The distance control can also be deactivated in order to be able to use the Dynamic Cruise Control (DCC).”

Cornering? It has features like a cornering system where it automatically lowers the speed if needed to create a comfortable cornering lean angle. Apparently the further the lean the less the system activates so that the rider is in control during manoeuvres.

Traffic jams? One potential thing to think about is that the system can only see moving vehicles. If traffic is stationary in a traffic jam for example, the sensors can't see it, so riders must be ready to take over in these circumstances. However the likelihood of your using cruise control in a slow stop-start traffic situation are negligible so this probably wouldn't be a problem.

So here we are with another technological feature coming out for motorcycles. Will it be on every bike in the future? Did we ask for it and do we want it? What do you think, will it make motorcycling more enjoyable and practical and give your throttle hand a break on a long run, or is it another unnecessary thing waiting to go wrong? We'd like to know what you think?