While Google busies itself with building cars that can drive themselves, China’s equivalent — the monstrous Baidu — is building this super-cool smart bike. Not as complex perhaps, but a damn sight more realisable.
The new bicycle — called Dubike — isn’t motorised, but it is packed with tech that powers itself through your pedalling. Loaded with sensors, it detects heart rate, cadence (that’s the rate at which you pedal), crank torque and more. The data is then beamed via Bluetooth to a smartphone app, allowing you to monitor your performance.
The handlebars also feature a navigation systems which pairs up with your phone to supply directions, and it also allows you to chart your progress and against pre-set fitness programs before beaming them off to your social networks to brag. All of that’s powered by a “self-generation hub that converts kinetic into electrical energy.” So, that will be a dynamo, then.
Designed by the Institute of Deep Learning along with Baidu, it will launch in China by the end of the year, though price remains a mystery. It’s unlikely it will ever make it to the West — so maybe we’ll just have to wait for those cars? [Baidu Dubike via Yahoo via Engadget]