Riding your 2-wheeler without a helmet? Ola's upcoming tech won't allow it

The country's largest electric two-wheeler manufacturer, Ola is working on a technology that can detect if a rider is wearing a helmet or not, Autocar India (ACI) reported. For this, Ola will use a camera and then send this information to the Vehicle Control Unit (VCU). The VCU will relay this information to the Motor Control Unit, which will decide if the vehicle will switch to Ride mode or not, the report said.

Thus, if the system detects that the rider is not wearing a helmet, the Ola scooters will automatically switch to Park mode. Once in the Park mode, a notification will appear on the dash to remind the rider to wear a helmet. Thereafter, the scooter will switch to the Ride mode only if detects that the rider has put on a helmet. Later, the system will continue to monitor the rider, the report said.

Ola is not the only company making advances in this technology. TVS also recently announced that it was working to build a camera-based helmet reminder system.

However, Ola's scooter takes it one step further by denying the rider the ability to ride without a helmet. In TVS' case, only a warning message will appear to riders reminding them to wear a helmet, the ACI report said. TVS technology does not talk about putting the scooter in Park mode in cases when the rider is not wearing a helmet.

Riders often ride two-wheelers without wearing head-protection gear. Experts say that riding without helmets is one of the leading causes of fatalities during accidents.