The partnership between French tech supplier Valeo and Indian motorbike titan Hero MotoCorp targets one of the deadliest gaps in global road safety: everyday riders on two wheels who, until now, have largely missed out on modern driver-assistance technology.
A blind spot that kills far too many riders
Motorbikes and scooters account for a modest share of global traffic, yet they carry a disproportionate share of the trauma.
Riders make up 43% of serious road casualties and 22% of deaths, despite representing only about 2% of traffic.
Those figures reflect a brutal reality. Riders sit exposed. They have no crumple zones. Their machines accelerate fast, brake hard and lean sharply. One mistake by them, or by another road user, can turn a routine commute into a life-changing crash.
Technology has already changed that equation for car drivers. In the UK and elsewhere, the roll-out of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) — automatic emergency braking, lane-keeping, blind-spot alerts — has helped reduce car accident rates by around 20–30%. Detection and anticipation save lives.
On two wheels, the story is very different. The one major step forward has been ABS braking, mandatory in Europe on bikes and scooters above 125 cc since 2017. It has clearly reduced loss of control under heavy braking. Beyond that, rider assistance remains patchy, often limited to high-end tourers and premium bikes.
This is where the new Franco-Indian alliance comes in.
Valeo and Hero: two industrial heavyweights with complementary strengths
Hero MotoCorp: building the bikes that keep emerging cities moving
Hero MotoCorp is hardly a household name in Europe or the US, yet it is the world’s largest manufacturer of motorbikes and scooters by volume.
- More than 5 million two-wheelers sold every year
- Strong presence in India, Asia, Africa and Latin America
- Around 9,000 employees and 8 major manufacturing sites
- Annual revenue above €4.5 billion
In its core markets, a two-wheeler is not a leisure toy. It is a work tool, a family’s only vehicle, and a lifeline for gig workers and small businesses. Machines must be cheap, tough and able to clock up tens of thousands of kilometres in heat, dust and dense, chaotic traffic.
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Hero has built its dominance on that pragmatic approach. Now it is pushing into electric mobility with its VIDA brand, seeking to pair low running costs and lower emissions with better active safety at mass scale.
Valeo: the invisible giant behind modern driver assistance
Europe’s contribution to the alliance is Valeo, a French automotive supplier whose technology sits quietly inside millions of cars worldwide.
| Valeo at a glance | Key figures |
|---|---|
| Employees | ≈110,000 |
| Industrial sites | 180+ in 33 countries |
| Annual revenue | ≈€22 billion |
| Engineers in R&D | 20,000+ |
| R&D budget | >€2 billion per year |
Valeo is a leader in radars, cameras, ultrasonic sensors and the software that fuses those data streams into meaningful alerts and actions. Its systems underpin many of the driver-assistance features now standard on new cars.
For Valeo, adapting that expertise to motorbikes is a technical challenge: less space, more vibration, more extreme movements, and tougher cost constraints. For Hero, the prize is the ability to bring high-grade safety tech to millions of riders who have never had access to it.
A digital co-pilot for the scooter and motorbike reality
On 8 January 2026, the two groups signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop ARAS — Advanced Rider Assistance Systems — designed from the ground up for motorbikes and scooters rather than repurposed from cars.
The goal is a 360-degree “digital co-pilot” that watches what the rider cannot always see.
The architecture combines radar and cameras positioned to cover both front and rear. Radar works well in poor visibility, rain or darkness, giving distance and relative speed of vehicles around the bike. Cameras add context: pedestrians, lane markings, traffic signs, unexpected obstacles.
Software then interprets that data in real time. If a car approaches fast from behind, the system might warn the rider of a potential rear-end risk. If a pedestrian steps off the kerb while the rider filters between lanes, the bike could issue an urgent alert. On electric scooters weaving through dense traffic, such early warnings could mean the difference between a scare and an impact.
The ambition is to create an “envelope of safety” around the bike without interfering with the joy or agility of riding. Alerts must be clear, timely and not overwhelming. Riders need help, not nagging.
From premium flagships to entry-level commuters
One crucial aspect of the alliance is pricing and scalability. The two partners want ARAS not just on premium machines, but on bread-and-butter models and the new wave of electric scooters.
Sensors and processing units are being designed to fit on small, affordable bikes with limited battery capacity and tight cost envelopes. That also means thinking about retrofitting: can large parts of the existing fleet be upgraded in workshops with add-on kits?
Aftermarket solutions matter especially in India and Southeast Asia, where tens of millions of older scooters will stay on the road for years. If even a fraction of them receive basic collision-warning tools, the impact on casualties could be significant.
Why India and Asia sit at the centre of this strategy
Globally, powered two-wheelers are a vital piece of urban mobility, but in India their dominance is staggering. In some urban areas such as Delhi or Nashik, studies show that 48–80% of trips between 1 and 20 km are done by two-wheeler.
This concentration of riders creates both a risk and an opportunity. Streets are full of unpredictable interactions: cars, buses, tuk-tuks, cyclists, pedestrians, delivery riders, all sharing the same limited space. Any safety technology that can reduce conflict points has an outsized effect.
That explains Valeo’s choice of partner. The Asia-Pacific region already accounts for most of the growth in the motorcycle safety market. Working with a champion like Hero offers scale from day one, plus intimate knowledge of real-world use: how people ride, the roads they face, and how much they can pay.
A booming market: from niche to multi-billion euro business
The financial backdrop is changing fast. Motorcycle and scooter safety technology is no longer seen as a niche add-on for a few affluent enthusiasts.
The global road safety market for two-wheelers is estimated at about €1.9 billion in 2025 and could exceed €3.3 billion by 2035.
Several trends are driving that growth:
- Rising expectations from riders used to car-level safety features
- Rapid take-up of electric scooters and motorbikes in big cities
- Expansion of moto-taxi and delivery services, increasing daily mileage and exposure
- Stricter regulations on ABS and, potentially, future active safety systems
- Growing aftermarket for sensor-based upgrades on older vehicles
At the moment, ABS and basic sensors dominate the market. But as costs fall and regulations tighten, more sophisticated ARAS packages are moving into mid-range models, not just flagship bikes. That suits Valeo and Hero, whose alliance is explicitly framed as a way to turn safety into a standard, not a luxury extra.
First public glimpse: CES 2026 in Las Vegas
The partnership is not just a paper agreement. Early demonstrators are already on show at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, giving a glimpse of how the technology will look and feel on next-generation electric scooters and commuter bikes.
Concept vehicles highlight rear- and front-facing radar integration, compact camera housings, and dashboards capable of showing warnings with minimal distraction. Behind the scenes, engineers are still tuning algorithms so that systems react quickly enough without triggering false alarms every time a rider changes lane in tight traffic.
What ARAS actually means for a rider’s daily life
For many riders, ARAS may sound abstract or intimidating. In practice, the functions will feel familiar to anyone who has driven a modern car:
- Forward collision warning: alerts when a vehicle or obstacle ahead closes in too fast.
- Rear traffic alert: warns of fast-approaching vehicles from behind, especially useful in stop-start traffic.
- Blind-spot detection: signals when another vehicle sits in a zone the rider may not see in mirrors.
- Lane departure or drift warning: on larger highways, can notify if the bike moves unintentionally out of its lane.
On an overloaded city street in Mumbai or Jakarta, a typical day might see a rider receive several brief warnings at critical moments: a bus cutting across, a car opening a door, a pedestrian dashing through a gap. Most of the time, nothing happens; the alert simply nudges the rider to brake or shift position slightly earlier than they otherwise would.
Each of those micro-adjustments, aggregated over millions of daily trips, can prevent countless minor collisions and a measurable number of serious crashes.
Risks, limits and behavioural side effects
No technology on a bike comes without trade-offs. One concern is risk compensation: riders feeling protected by ARAS may twist the throttle harder, take more chances or pay less attention.
That is why interface design matters so much. The systems being discussed by Valeo and Hero are intended to assist, not to automate. They will not steer or brake the bike for the rider in most scenarios. Instead they add a second pair of “eyes” that highlight threats while keeping responsibility in the rider’s hands.
Another challenge lies in harsh, real-world conditions. Sensors must survive monsoon rains, dust, potholes, repeated impacts with speed bumps and informal repairs. If riders come to see ARAS as fragile or expensive to maintain, adoption will stall. Robust hardware and affordable servicing will be just as decisive as clever algorithms.
How this shift could reshape urban mobility
If ARAS becomes a common feature on scooters and motorcycles, the impact goes beyond safety statistics. Cities might feel more comfortable integrating two-wheelers into formal transport planning, rather than treating them as a necessary nuisance on the margins.
Insurance markets may start to differentiate between ARAS-equipped and non-equipped bikes, rewarding safer machines with lower premiums. Fleet operators — from delivery platforms to moto-taxi firms — could see fewer injuries, less downtime and more predictable operating costs.
For riders in London, Los Angeles or Lagos, the change might feel slow at first: a few more icons on the dash, a light that flashes in the corner of their eye, a beep they are not used to hearing. Behind that small sensory shift sits a much larger industrial gamble: that bringing car-level intelligence to the humble scooter can finally close one of road safety’s deadliest blind spots.
Originally posted 2026-03-12 11:15:41.