The latest prototype seeking production costs through crowd-funding comes to a screen near you today.
Launching today on Indiegogo, the Visiobike is the creation of Croatia’s Marko Matenda. Working in conjunction with automotive and product design company Absolute Design, Matenda’s vision developed over 2 years to consist of sleek lines with integrated electronics and without the limitations of a black and white monitor.
The electric bike instead uses an app on your smartphone to allow you to control assistance, monitor speed and battery status. With your cradled smartphone replacing the monitor, you can also plan your route using Google Maps as well as keep an eye on what’s happening behind you through the video streaming from the rear-view camera mounted underneath your saddle.
Matenda told Pedelecs: “Since we all carry a computing powerhouse in our pocket in shape of the smartphone, it was logical to use that computing power to enhance user experience and functions of an e-bike. Our layer of hardware and software enables us to use the Visiobike app as an advance dashboard for control and represents a platform that enables cool and very useful features. For example, we can easily update the electric motor software remotely Over The Air (OTA) which means that our customers will always have an up to date Visiobike”.
The camera records the last 3 minutes automatically, with a built-in motion sensor detecting if you’ve had an accident. The app also uploads your ride data to the cloud and uses a unique pin code to lock and unlock the bike’s motor.
Aimed at city cyclists, its creators plan to offer a 250w version of the bike once the crowd-funding target of 180,000 euros is met. The funds will be used for “certification, bulk orders, final tweaking, assembly and shipping of the first batch of Visiobikes to our backers” says Matenda.
In an interview with Pedelecs, Matenda explained the background to his creation: “Visiobike is my first startup and before this I was a student of economics. During my education I won an award for the best business plan, made two concept cars for Toyota Motor Corporation, out of which one was presented in Japan and after finishing graduate studies, I signed up for Founder Institute and built Visiobike from scratch in 18 months! My first contact with electric bikes was a piece of **** from China that my dad bought.The batteries alone weighed 26kg and it didn’t work very well, but I saw a potential in the concept of an e-bike! My passions are gadgets, computers and technology and cycling, so I decided to combine that and make a smart e-bike.”
Talking about the styling and technology behind that bike however, he comments: “I really don’t like poorly designed products and there was no chance that Visiobike wouldn’t be beautiful. We’ve integrated the battery, motor and all components in one sleek frame and made it out of cool and very strong carbon fibre. Even today, most e-bikes have the battery and motor mounted somewhere very visible which isn’t very cool and even from a long distance you can see that it’s an e-bike. We wanted to avoid that and make an e-bike that’s cool and good looking!”
While security features also played their part in the overall vision, the bike will come with the back up of a free year’s insurance: “Without the unique pin code, one can’t do anything with the Visiobike which makes it pretty much useless for a thief. On top of that, if Visiobike detects motion while locked, its owner is notified by SMS and can begin tracking. If somebody is persistent and carries your Visiobike away, a built-in GPS and GSM system in the bike sends its exact location, so you can kindly ask thief to hand you over your Visiobike. Visiobike also has an electronic Axa lock on the rear wheel which automatically unlocks when pin code is entered. We’re so confident in Visiobike security features that we’re giving one year anti-theft insurance for free!”
The Indiegogo Visiobike price is 600€ less than the electric bike will eventually sell for: 3900€ for 250W and 4400€ for 500W version on Indiegogo.
