The design solves the problem of exposed and unsightly radar sensors.
Indian has been quietly working on radar-based adaptive cruise control adoption for the last five years, but while its rivals have jumped in and released similar systems, the American brand still doesn’t have its version in dealerships. Why not? It might be down to aesthetics as much as technical issues – styling is key to cruiser success and bolting an unsightly radar sensor onto the front is guaranteed to send customers running for the hills.
Now Indian has filed a patent application that suggests it’s solved that problem by creating a new headlight that slots in place of the existing unit used on its latest Chieftain, Challenger, Pursuit, and Roadmaster models, but incorporates a radar sensor behind the lens. It’s a logical step: modern LED technology means lights can be smaller than ever and sculpted into a wide variety of shapes, but traditional cruiser styling still calls for a large, circular lamp. Combine that development with the fact radar sensors are also getting smaller, and it’s easy to see how the clear space behind the headlight lens could become a useful home for radar.
Radar waves can pass through glass or plastic, as used for a headlight lens, provided there’s no metallized coating, and the main requirement for the type of radar sensors used for adaptive cruise control and automatic collision-mitigating braking systems is that if they’re positioned behind any bodywork, it needs to be smooth and near-vertical to ensure it doesn’t disrupt the radar waves being sent out and the echoes being received to monitor the distance to objects ahead. That means a large, flat-fronted headlight is almost ideal for the job.
Indian’s patent shows the new headlight unit located in what appears to be the nose of a Chieftain, complete with the same distinctive daytime running lights flanking the main light unit and a slightly hooded headlight aperture in the fairing. The headlight, while retaining the same overall size and circular shape of the existing design, is split into two parts, with a larger upper section and a smaller lower part inserted into it. The upper element, now crescent-shaped, is where the LED headlight itself lives. We’re not given details of the reflector or LED arrangement, but it must contain both high and low beam units, as the smaller lower section now houses the radar sensor. Numbered “110” in the drawings, the radar unit is the usual rectangular design seen on other radar-equipped bikes, simply repositioned to be inside the light unit. By comparison, rivals like BMW’s R 18 Transcontinental and Bagger are already offered with a front radar option, using a similar sensor, but they mount it in an unsightly pod above the headlight.
For 2025, Indian has adopted radar on several of its models, but only rear-facing units used for blind spot monitoring and rear collision warnings. However, the company’s patents for forward-facing radar go back at least five years, showing that Indian is working not only on simple adaptive cruise control, but more complex variants designed to allow bikes to ride in staggered groups without triggering unnecessary warnings, pairing the radar with cameras to monitor the bike’s position within its lane.
Increasingly, bike companies are pairing radar cruise control with the new generation of semi-automatic transmissions, allowing bikes to operate using cruise control over a wider speed range, shifting gears themselves as needed while automatically accelerating and decelerating to keep pace with the flow of traffic. Some, notably KTM’s latest system, can even come to a complete halt and pull away again without rider intervention. Indian doesn’t have such an automated transmission yet, but it’s a logical next step once the front radar system comes online.
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