Radar, Camera, Lidar or Ultrasonic: Which Technology Is Best for a Motorcycle?
One of the loudest technology debates of recent years is happening in the car world. Tesla says cameras and a good neural network are all you need to drive. Waymo insists there is no safety without lidar and radar. On a motorcycle the debate looks different. A motorcycle has no windshield with wipers and no roof, and the rider does not sit in a dry cabin. The sensor that wins here is the one that does not care about the weather: radar.
The debate that splits the industry
Tesla started removing radar from its cars in 2021, and in October 2022 it stopped fitting ultrasonic sensors. Since then its cars see the world through cameras alone. The Cybercab runs on the same idea: a robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, which started carrying paying passengers in Austin in September 2026. The argument is simple: people drive with two eyes and a brain, so eight cameras and a neural network should manage too.
Waymo combines lidar, radar and cameras, because it believes safety comes from redundancy. According to the company's own data, its cars are involved in 94% fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers over the same distance.
Who is right about cars will become clear in the next few years. On a motorcycle the answer is simpler.
Every sensor sees something different
| Radar | Camera | Lidar | Ultrasonic | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it measures | distance, speed, direction | an image: recognises objects and lane lines | a precise 3D picture | distance only |
| Night | works | struggles | works | works |
| Rain and fog | works | struggles | struggles | works |
| Riding speed | no limit that matters | no limit that matters | no limit that matters | manoeuvring only |
| Where it is today | active safety | dash cams, car systems | robotaxis | parking sensors |
Radar: it doesn't know what it sees, but it always sees
Radar sends out radio waves and listens for the echo. From the time the echo takes to return it calculates distance, from the shift in frequency it calculates closing speed, and from the difference in the signal across several antennas it works out direction. A 77 GHz wave is about 3.9 mm long, many times longer than fog droplets. So it passes through fog and dust, and rain only scatters it slightly. Darkness makes no difference, because radar sends its own signal.
Its weakness: it doesn't know what it sees. A car, a guardrail and a post are all just objects of a certain size and speed. It has a harder time with things that are not moving, and on a motorcycle it sits low, so more of the wave bounces off the tarmac and the electronics have to filter it out.
For a warning about a car in your blind spot, none of that matters. You don't need to know whether it's an SUV or a van. You need to know that something is closing in fast.
The first production motorcycle with radar at the front and rear was the 2021 Ducati Multistrada V4. Today Ducati, BMW, KTM, Kawasaki and Yamaha offer radar on their top models, usually as an option. On any other motorcycle you can add it yourself, for example with the CHIGEE SR-1.
Camera: the smartest, but it needs light
A camera is the only sensor that recognises what is in front of it: a car, a pedestrian, a cyclist, a sign or a lane line. That is why Tesla bet everything on it.
But a camera works like an eye. After dark it gets less and less light, in rain and fog it loses range, and a low sun or oncoming headlights can blind it. In a car it sits behind a windshield cleaned by wipers. On a motorcycle the lens collects rain and mud, and it shakes along with the whole bike.
That is why on a motorcycle a camera works best as a recorder. It films the ride and gives you evidence if something happens. That is how the cameras on the AIO-6 and the XR-1 dash cam work. In CHIGEE displays, camera-based blind spot monitoring is the base layer, and once paired with the SR-1 the radar takes over, because it is more accurate.
Lidar: a precision champion that dislikes weather
Lidar scans its surroundings with a laser and builds a precise three-dimensional map. It is what gives Waymo's robotaxis certainty about the shape and distance of every object. But it works with infrared light, and that light is scattered by fog, raindrops and snowflakes. Fog chamber tests show that in dense fog lidar loses range and sees false points reflected off the droplets. Rain settling on the sensor housing also degrades the measurement. In the same conditions radar copes much better.
Lidar also needs a clean, sheltered mounting spot. On a robotaxi that is doable. On a motorcycle, exposed to everything the road throws at it, it is hard to imagine worse conditions.
Ultrasonic: great for parking, deaf on the road
An ultrasonic sensor sends out a pulse of sound and measures the time of the echo. It is cheap, accurate over short distances and unbothered by darkness. But it measures distance only, with no speed or direction. At higher speeds wind noise drowns out the echo. In a car the sensors hide in the bumper, on a motorcycle nothing shields them. That is why ultrasonics stayed in parking lots, and Tesla dropped them even from its cars.
When each one wins
- You are parking or manoeuvring in a garage: ultrasonic.
- You want to know exactly what is on the road and have a recording: camera.
- You are building a robotaxi with a budget for everything: lidar together with the rest.
- You are riding a motorcycle in the rain, after dark or on the motorway and want to know what is coming up behind you: radar.
On a motorcycle the Tesla versus Waymo debate ends in a division of roles. Radar detects, the camera recognises and records. That is how motorcycles with factory radar work, and that is how the CHIGEE system works, where the SR-1 radar pairs with an AIO-6 or AIO-5 EVO display. How the radar works in practice is covered in How does motorcycle blind spot radar work?
Frequently asked questions
Does radar recognise what it sees?
No. It knows something is there, how far away it is and how fast it is closing in, but it can't tell a car from a guardrail. Recognition is the camera's job.
Is a camera alone enough for blind spot monitoring?
In daylight and good weather, yes. After dark, in the rain and against the sun a camera loses the picture, while radar keeps working.
Why don't parking sensors work while riding?
Because wind noise drowns out the echo. In a car the bumper protects the sensors, on a motorcycle they are exposed to the airflow.
Which motorcycles have factory radar?
Top models from Ducati, BMW, KTM, Kawasaki and Yamaha, usually as an option. You can add radar to any other motorcycle, for example the CHIGEE SR-1.
Sources
- Ducati, announcement of the Multistrada V4 with radar (2020)
- Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ with radar adaptive cruise control (2024)
- Tesla drops ultrasonic sensors (2022)
- Automotive News, Tesla Cybercab vs Waymo (2026)
- Electrek, Waymo on the limits of camera-only systems (2026)
- Bijelic et al., A Benchmark for Lidar Sensors in Fog
- Heinzler et al., Weather Influence and Classification with Automotive Lidar Sensors