MWC 2024: This 5G E-Bike Borrows Tesla-Style ADAS Tech For Safer Riding
Orbic, which makes a wide range of consumer electronics gadgets, is now looking at the electric bike segment. At MWC 2024, the company has revealed what it calls a 5G eBike, which also happens to be the first in the world to rely on AI-assisted object detection. "Orbic's new technology actively monitors the rear surroundings of the eBike and alerts riders to potential hazards, such as oncoming vehicles," says the company.
For world sensing, the company equipped the e-bike with a 2-megapixel camera sensor at the rear that covers a 140-degree field of view to offer real-time world awareness. In addition to surveillance, this sensor ties in with the onboard video and audio systems, sending visual and sound cues as safety measures.
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Orbic's approach, despite being a meaningfully novel addition for an electric bike, follows in the controversial footsteps of Tesla. The Elon Musk-led car company decided to remove radar sensors from its electric cars back in 2021 in favor of cameras. Tesla has been quite bullish about the vision-based intelligence for its advanced driver assist system (ADAS), which includes both Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (FSD).
Tesla received some flak for the move due to well-known shortcomings of cameras for ADAS implementation, but the company is quite bullish on its tech stack and is even building one of the world's most powerful supercomputers to handle tasks like image data labeling. As for Orbic's e-bike, the vision-based sensing and safety alert system is an impressive achievement.
A practical smart bike, at last?
Orbic is also treating its electric bike as an outdoor streaming machine. To that end, the company has armed its two-wheeler ride with a 64-megapixel camera at the front that will assist with live-streaming one's journey. There's another 2-megapixel camera atop the heads-up display that also serves as an infotainment unit.
As mentioned above, Orbic is pushing the e-bike as more of a connected device than just an electric ride. Orbic's official website also highlights support for 5G provided by Verizon and support for the Android operating system. The display showcases details like navigation information, route tracking, battery details, and other information.
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Thanks to 5G support, the Orbic bike also acts as a standalone internet hotspot on outdoor journeys. Another cool perk is bike-to-bike connectivity, which creates a shared experience for riders in the group and enhances safety with features like real-time tracking. Regarding safety, there's also a neat helmet detection system that only starts the bike when the rider puts on the helmet.
On the performance side of things, the e-bike peaks at 45 kilometers per hour, but the company warns that local speed restrictions might lead to some changes in the top speed figures. Currently, the company hasn't revealed how much its 5G-ready e-bike will cost and when it will go on sale.