MotoGP, Ducati in the future: artificial intelligence to go faster

Year after year, motorcycling has changed and continues to change, going hand in hand with technological progress, and as expected yet another step forward is just around the corner. It’s strange to talk about technology and think of the bikes raced by legends like Angel Nieto or Eddie Lawson, but everything evolves and the world of two wheels is no exception.

Ducati has been talking about the next step in technological terms, in a telematic meeting organized together with its partner Lenovo and open to the press: the fact that manufacturers try to improve the performance of the bike by digging into every scientific-technical area is well-known, but the next move will be none other than artificial intelligence.

The concept was explained by Gabriele Conti, head of Ducati’s electronic systems department. "It is no longer just about collecting data, but also about analysing it in depth, and the next step will involve the use of Artificial Intelligence. I think it's the future, because we need something that thinks faster than humans, which artificial intelligence can do. Among other things, we are already using a machine to learn. "

Conti continued in his analysis, accompanying us on a little walk into the future…

“We already use some parameters calculated with a machine, which is able to manage an incredible amount of data, something that we just cannot do. It performs correct calculations and manages to obtain parameters in real time. The next step, and we are already working on it, will help track and factory engineers to develop the new bike ".

But what does a rider think of all this? The answer was provided by Danilo Petrucci, who confirmed that the riders are now focussing on the study of data.

“Unfortunately, we have to spend more time looking at the data than riding a motorbike: it is a way to understand how to ride better, 80% of the bike's configuration is based on data. In this sense, for every Grand Prix I receive from my chief engineer a seven-page email with the data: this has been the case since 2015, I 've still saved them all. " Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future.