Yamaha Motor’s MOTOROiD Nominated for Grand Prize of Global Design Awards

IWATA, JAPAN – July 12, 2018 – (Motor Sports Newswire) – Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Tokyo:7272) announced today that its MOTOROiD has received the “Best of the Best” honor, awarded to 40 concepts – and furthermore been nominated for the top-three “Red Dot: Luminary” award – at the globally-prestigious “Red Dot Award: Design Concept 2018” design competition. The MOTOROiD concept model has also attracted much attention when exhibited at the likes of the 45th Tokyo Motor Show 2017.

This selection represents Yamaha Motor’s first-ever Luminary award nomination. In addition, with the award bestowed on the MOTOROiD, Yamaha Motor has received honors in the Design Concept category for two years in a row, as well as its first “Best of the Best” selection. The 2018 Red Dot Awards received a total of 5,640 entries from 55 countries around the world.

The Luminary award winner will be announced at the awards ceremony to be held on September 28.

The MOTOROiD concept model aims to demonstrate personal mobility in which the rider resonates harmoniously with the machine. Equipped with high-precision balance control via artificial intelligence and autonomous technology, the MOTOROiD can sense its own state and adjust its center of gravity accordingly to stand up off its kickstand and remain upright unassisted. It can also recognize its owner and move forward to meet him/her, as well as react based on its rider’s actions thanks to its human-machine interface (HMI). These, among several other functions, allow MOTOROiD to behave like a true partner of its owner. MOTOROiD inspires a vision of future mobility that takes vehicles beyond simple “tools for movement.” However, the exterior is deliberately far from flashy. The frame retains clear traces of the cuts made to create it, the body is marked with unvarnished scars here and there, and the tires are worn to the point that even the tread grooves are nearly gone. The designers and engineers wanted to show the public what their repeated creative clashes gave birth to in unaltered form.

The Red Dot Design Awards, organized by Germany’s Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen, are widely recognized as one of the most prestigious design awards in the world. Designs of outstanding quality are selected each year in the three categories of Product Design, Communication Design, and Design Concept.

Source: Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd.

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