[HN Gopher] Acer is building a fancy electric bike with AI
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Acer is building a fancy electric bike with AI
Author : harambae
Score : 32 points
Date : 2023-03-20 14:39 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (electrek.co)
(TXT) w3m dump (electrek.co)
| ShuffleBoard wrote:
| LOLOL I wasted $900 on a "high end" Acer laptop once. _Never_
| again will I trust them.
|
| Anyone foolish enough to buy from Acer something where defects &
| cheap design can injure you deserves to, well, at least, lose the
| $$$ they fork over. They don't deserve the myriad injuries they
| will get though.
|
| IOW: personal injury lawyers, start your engines!
| abudabi123 wrote:
| A.I. has no sense of the _pain_ in the crotch on long rides even
| if with battery assisted power pedaling. Dynamic supporting touch
| points just above the back of the knee and at the crease between
| buttocks and thigh without interfering with circulation and
| obsoleting the seat saddle is what 's needed in a new design
| invention.
|
| See interval between
|
| 19. gluteus maximus 25. ischiocrurale
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_skeletal_muscles_of_th...
| uoaei wrote:
| You need a better saddle. It's as simple as that.
|
| Higher-end shops have pressure pads that you can sit on. They
| can use the data from that to find a saddle that works for you.
|
| Source: I bike a lot
| jamincan wrote:
| I'm skeptical that a change in saddle would make a huge
| difference for the average rider. I personally find that my
| comfort on the road bike correlates to how hard I'm working -
| active group rides I'm fine; noodling around with family on
| the same bike is a lot less comfortable. The only difference
| I can see is that I'm putting way more weight on the peddles
| in the first case compared to the latter.
|
| I imagine your average rider is probably a lot closer to
| noodling around than a group ride.
| uoaei wrote:
| I would also be uncomfortable on a road bike when not
| exerting myself. That being said, there are good reasons
| why bikes come in different shapes for different use cases.
| Casual riding can be very comfortable with a more suitable
| frame and configuration.
|
| The one-bike-that-does-it-all (aka "quiver-killer") is an
| elusive beast in the cycling community, it's no surprise
| your road bike doesn't fit the bill. The style most people
| end up settling on is something along the lines of a light-
| ish steel touring frame, with reasonable slack and tire
| clearance, equipped with a Brooks saddle and handlebars
| with multiple hand positions.
| Dangeranger wrote:
| Both you and the parent commenter are correct; A saddle
| that matches your personal anatomy will make a tremendous
| difference for all riding conditions, and the amount of
| times you vary your position on the bike will alleviate
| discomfort by allowing blood to flow naturally as your
| weight shifts. More intense riding conditions necessitate
| moving around on the saddle more often.
|
| Additionally, if you simply ride your bike more often your
| groin and siting bones will feel more comfortable by
| acclimating to the pressure and movement. It's helpful to
| wear appropriate clothing in the areas that contact the
| saddle as well, such as a chamois liner, to reduce friction
| and add an appropriate amount of cushion.
| jedisct1 wrote:
| French company iWeech has been making AI-powered e-bikes for a
| while: https://iweech.com/en/
|
| And they're actually pretty good, even without the AI part.
|
| It's not hard to change gears and assistance level without AI.
| However, people riding these bikes have reported really good
| battery performance. The AI stuff automatically optimizes for
| that, especially when the battery is getting low.
|
| I'm still a little bit skeptical, though. Living in a city with
| steep streets everywhere, I constantly have to anticipate, and be
| ready to start with the right gear/assistance after a stop.
|
| Without a camera, I don't see how AI could do that. At best, it
| will quickly switch gear after realizing that the previous
| setting was off. Not so great to ride in a busy city.
| SN76477 wrote:
| https://lowtechmagazine.com/2023/02/can-we-make-bicycles-sus...
| hinata08 wrote:
| That would deserve a post of its own
|
| but it's not an accurate perspective IMO, when it mixes all
| kinds of bikes.
|
| -> you can't compare bikes to go to work and sport bike. Sport
| bikes aim for performance, not being lean. Sport bikes have
| carbon fibre frames, proprietary components, the new wheel
| mounts, as mentioned,... And they pretty much last only a few
| years.
|
| *BUT* previous road bikes were not better : the horizontal
| mounting would worn out after a few years. Your back wheel
| would become hard to secure, and would swerve left and ram the
| frame.
|
| The brakes on the rim would also wear it out, so that you had
| to change the whole wheels (which is expensive) from time to
| time, and not just a disc.
|
| Also, old steel frames could rust and become floppy after a few
| years.
|
| And material science wasn't as good a few years ago, so a lot
| of things could happen to your bike (cracks on the seat post
| mounting, bent chainset, ...)
|
| So all in all, the useful lifespan of sport bikes weren't
| better.
|
| -> then utility bikes : modern utility bikes are still made out
| of steel or aluminium, standard components, and are still much
| more sturdy and dependable for the same reason.
|
| Mine will soon be 10, has spent 2 weeks at the bottom of a lake
| just after I had it, has countless scratches, has had countless
| crashes with cars and urban furniture, I rode under the rain or
| freezing mist, in the forests, cobbled streets, in the city;
| the bike stayed outside in freezing winter or hot summer, the
| blokes tried to steal it,... And it's still there. I just had
| to change the wheels twice.
|
| OP also overplays compatibility issues. You indeed used to have
| standard components, and you still do ! But instead of having
| to choose between 5 or 7 gears, you can choose between 5 and 11
| gears on utility bikes. And old parts are still available.
|
| There are just some parts that became shorter lived, for
| reasons : Forks now have suspensions, and saddles are now
| comfortable, thanks to foam.
|
| On the other hand, OP underplays the issue with electric bikes.
| There is indeed a lack of standardization for these. Which
| means that when your battery gets worn out (typically after 800
| cycles, so 3-5 years), odds are that your battery isn't
| produced anymore, and you can dispose of the bike.
|
| please resubmit it to discuss it further !
| sva_ wrote:
| It looks like the bike is in the 'foldable' shape, but isn't
| foldable?
|
| These small foldable bikes are popular in Europe mainly because
| you can take them with you on public transport for free (they
| count as luggage if folded together.)
| analog31 wrote:
| The gushing article about an outsider inventing a bike that
| solves all of the problems of cycling, is a recurring literary
| genre.
| zwieback wrote:
| I'm all for e-bikes but you'd have to pay me $1500-$2500 to ride
| this ugly thing.
| Syonyk wrote:
| Ew. And, no mention of the RGB LEDs it apparently must have to
| qualify as a bit of modern consumer electronics?
|
| We don't need more expensive, exotic ebikes. We need more "Cheap
| enough, good enough" ebikes that people will actually buy and
| use.
| pxtail wrote:
| Looks like nobody wants to make customer friendly product
| anymore, it needs to be packed to the brim with useless
| gimmicks and software which WILL become obsolete and outdated,
| and of course locked down as hard as possible. It's really
| weird, all this dichotomy and delusion - on one hand there are
| numerous educational initiatives, kids are learning from young
| age that we need to take care about environment. There are
| numerous government initiatives focused on telling individual
| people how to live, how many times to fly on vacation and how
| many times one is allowed to leave residential area.
|
| And yet I'm unable to buy electric bike WITH INTERCHANGEABLE
| PARTS - you know - just like all the bikes were for more than
| 200 years until now.
| Syonyk wrote:
| I've been fairly happy with the Rad Power bikes - I test rode
| a few many years back and felt they did a good job of
| "Understanding how to build a good mass market ebike" - they
| got that a motor covers the sins of a heavy bike, and put the
| money where it matters. They also, at least at the time, used
| some fairly generic interfaces such that you could swap out
| battery packs/controllers/etc without much loss of function
| (though their console wouldn't work with a random replacement
| controller). My only real complaint is that they ship with
| cable disc brakes, which are... eh, adequate, in the flats. I
| much prefer dual piston hydraulic brakes for any sort of
| serious hill use.
|
| > _Looks like nobody wants to make customer friendly product
| anymore..._
|
| Of course not. Where's the money in that? How are you going
| to sell all the behavioral data on the backend if you don't
| have a cell modem in it? (car makers, I'm looking at _you_ )
|
| > _...kids are learning from young age that we need to take
| care about environment._
|
| Sure! And in practice, this looks virtually indistinguishable
| from any other sort of consumerism, except it's Green
| Consumerism. You have to _buy the right products_ to show
| that you _Care(TM)_ about the environment, and, of course,
| have to have the money to buy those. How many people
| purchased Teslas because now a $100k luxury car was an
| environmental status signal, while living in gigantic houses
| and having 100 mile commutes?
|
| > _And yet I 'm unable to buy electric bike WITH
| INTERCHANGEABLE PARTS..._
|
| It's not just ebikes. Bikes in general are going to
| manufacturer-proprietary parts. Low Tech Magazine had a long
| rant on it recently -
| https://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/02/can-we-make-
| bicycles...
| wiredfool wrote:
| It's a rant on the internet, saying it was all better long
| ago. File it in the same bin with processors are faster so
| why is everything slower.
| speedgoose wrote:
| It really does look like the Acer interpretation of an electric
| bike.
| geraldcombs wrote:
| I'm wondering how many potholes it will take before the half-a-
| fork fails such that the front wheel gets wedged or comes off
| completely.
| jabroni_salad wrote:
| That isn't intrinsically horrible, the cannondale lefty is
| tried and true in the mountainbiking space, even if it is
| mostly a gimmick.
| sli wrote:
| > This lightweight 35 lb. (16 kg) e-bike features a number of
| gadgets and gizmos we have yet to spot in the industry, such as
| built-in AI designed to predictively control the transmission and
| make use of collision detection sensors for a safer ride.
|
| So, not AI, then. Just more scammy marketing copy.
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| > predictively control the transmission
|
| My 2010 automatic can throw a P003 "Turbocharger/Supercharger
| Boost Control Position Exceeded Learning Limit" error so
| apparently it's AI too!
| hinata08 wrote:
| indeed, these things have been existing for a while.
|
| Garmin has a nice Varia radar to show you cars coming from
| behind.
|
| But the use case is pretty slim, and the added value hard to
| find.
|
| -> Would you need to rely on an AI to avoid cars while being on
| a bike ? A bike isn't a car that needs AI, because drivers
| texts and are distracted. You can't be distracted on a bike (or
| you fall instantly)
|
| You have eyes, and you need to keep balance anyway. Also, a
| bike can't brake or change directions on its own, best it can
| do is flash an alarm. And you don't need a flashing light to
| hear a reckless driver going 7000rpm at an intersection. So AI
| to detect cars is useless.
|
| -> self locking bike ? Who can trust that ? car manufacturer
| already did that (poorly), it made an auto theft spree. And I'm
| not sure most drivers care anyway. So you can just lock your
| bike yourself in 30 seconds.
|
| -> GPS tracking ? trackers already exist. However, I haven't
| seen a lot of frequent bike users caring about them. They cost
| dozens of bucks at worst, and nobody buy these. Just lock your
| bike with a U lock to avoid theft.
|
| -> belt drive instead of chain ? Who cares ?
|
| -> LED lighting all around ? Yeah, maybe. It's the same as
| having lights and reflective tires. As most users can't bother,
| so it's great to have the bike pre-fitted with these.
|
| -> ebike battery to charge a phone ? It seems to be a feature
| that some users expect. But I wouldn't buy a bike to charge my
| phone. I have a charger at the office.
|
| -> *optional accessories including fenders and a rear rack* ?
| come on, that's the most valuable features for a city bike. Why
| is this optional ?
|
| This bike seems like a publicity stunt, or a bike for not-so-
| frequent riders...
|
| I'm eager to see if they review priorities, for further
| versions.
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(page generated 2023-03-20 23:03 UTC)