Just what we need on our roads: scores of pensioners wobbling around on their new smart bikes with automatic steering adjustment (via Japundit):
Members of an industrial network in Sakai, a city that ships 40 percent of Japan’s bicycle-related goods, have joined hands with researchers at Osaka Prefecture University to create bicycles equipped with a stabilization system that can automatically adjust steering, it has been learned.
Officials at the university and the Sakai Industry Club network, formed by 28 small- and medium-sized firms in Sakai, are hoping to market the bicycles to elderly people and aim to start manufacturing them by spring. […]
A sensor to detect the lean of the bicycle is placed under the seat. A device attached to the frame picks up signals from this sensor and automatically turns the handlebars left or right accordingly.
For example, if the bicycle is about to fall over to the right, the handlebars are adjusted to the left. The sensor enables slight adjustments to be made at an early stage to maintain balance.
Very clever no doubt, but perhaps an inability to stay upright on a bicycle is God’s way of telling you that you’re too old to be riding one.
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