In the United States as in China, concepts of fully autonomous bicycles, rolling without anyone’s help, have recently emerged. Still at the prototype stage, these projects nevertheless foreshadow new uses.
The first is the work of researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). They developed a model that literally changes shape depending on whether a person rides it or not. In normal mode, it has two wheels for one person to ride; in autonomous mode, its rear wheel splits and the assembly then turns into a tricycle, in order to remain perfectly stable. For now, this prototype is operated using a remote control, but the idea is to make it more autonomous in the future.
Another project, a little more advanced, was developed on a personal basis by an engineer from Huawei. Equipped with various sensors and cameras, it manages to move forward, on its own, systematically moving aside to avoid obstacles, on the road or sidewalks.
