Is the era of e-bikes with built-in ChatGPT just around the corner?
Chatbots have become a hot trend in the wave of AI technology, and have even begun to appear in the field of electric bicycles.
In China, however, many companies have created a variety of new technology-enabled models that can only be sold on the international market because of various new regulations that limit the development of e-bikes in China.
The development of intelligence affects all fields
Artificial Intelligence is an inevitable development trend in the modern era we live in, and this year, the topic with ChatGPT will always be the hottest.
This highly groundbreaking program developed by Open AI has taken the world by storm in recent months.
Programs like ChatGPT have proven to be useful in many industries.
While it still sounds unbelievable, ChatGPT is actually very close to us, as the text, images, and videos you read online were likely generated with the help of an artificial intelligence tool.
And now ChatGPT even has a place in the e-bike world! You heard right, a new e-bike with ChatGPT integration is already on the market.
And it’s being launched by Urtopia, a company from China.
Is the era of e-bikes with built-in ChatGPT just around the corner
Founded in 2021, Urtopia relies on a strong Chinese supply chain and advanced AIoT technology to build a product line that includes e-bikes and all kinds of peripheral products.
The products are sold to Europe and the United States through cross-border e-commerce, becoming the leading new force in e-bikes.
Urtopia uses ChatGPT as a key feature of its latest e-bike, Fusion, which uses Open AI technology to help riders enjoy a more silkier riding experience, as if they were talking to an onboard system assistant.
With this feature, riders will be able to ask the bike for directions, various vehicle information, and even discuss almost anything.
Urtopia showed a demo model of its ChatGPT-electric bike, Urtopia Fusion, at Eurobike 2023 and confirmed that the brand is working on a version for future sales.
Using Open AI technology and powered by apps like Apple Health and Strava, it allows users to voice control the vehicle and adjust bike settings by analyzing data in real time.
Urtopia Fusion - with ChatGPT e-bike
The bike was designed by Frog Design founder Hartmut Esslinger and former BMW designer Mathis Heller.
The Fusion is a common bike design, weighing about 15Kg, with an LED dot matrix screen on the front, ergonomic buttons on the left and right, Bluetooth audio, real-time navigation, fingerprint unlocking, and voice interaction.
It supports networking and OTA upgrades, and is equipped with oil disc brakes and puncture resistant bike tires.
It comes with multi-functional front and rear taillights, and an integrated headlight design, with the multi-functional taillight acting as a projector light and brake light.
Utopia’s new Fusion comes with ChatGPT, but also integrates with other apps like Apple Health, giving riders more insight into their riding, both in terms of their vehicle and personal health.
What’s even better about Fusion is that the built-in ChatGPT AI analyzes all this data and adjusts the bike’s settings in real time to maximize riding efficiency.
However, ChatGPT can’t update real-time information yet, so you can’t use it to ask about traffic or weather, although riders can ride along and chat with ChatGPT, ask ChatGPT about places to visit nearby, present information about attractions, the history of monuments, and more.
However, although ChatGPT’s ability to have multi-round conversations is very powerful, I’m afraid it’s hard to get too interested in chatting with ChatGPT in the face of its “official” replies.
In other words, regardless of whether ChatGPT is used in programming, creation, or in a car, its functionality is the first priority, and its companionship is just not enough.
In a promotional video, Urtopia shows a person asking the Chord Bike, “Who are you?” The bike responds in a familiar artificial voice: “I’m an AI language model.”
When asked what the point of an e-bike is, the chatbot gives the standard answer to the health benefits of riding an electric bike, rather than sharing the tips the chatbot can give when avoiding cars on a crowded street.
While this may be the first commercial bike to incorporate a modern AI chatbot into its system, it’s not the first mode of transportation that promises to make ChatGPT readily available.
Earlier this month, Mercedes-Benz announced the launch of a new beta program that adds ChatGPT to the car’s voice assistant.
Cars equipped with the MBUX assistant program have the option to talk to the car and then receive chatbot-based responses via Microsoft Azure OpenAI’s cloud service.
Mercedes-Benz claims ChatGPT provides more natural answers, answering user questions beyond predefined queries about sports and weather updates.
Utopia describes the new Fusion as a “thinking bike,” which may sound a bit disconcerting.
After all, it sounds like the e-bike will one day wake up and try to take over the world.
But a deeper look at how ChatGPT works suggests that’s unlikely, so there’s no need to worry about being dominated by a smart bike.
This technology from Utopia will certainly be applied to all its models as well. Perhaps it will also be seen in other model segments in the future.
The era of AI+ everything
E-bike is an emerging track that has been hot in the European and American markets in recent years, especially in Germany, the Netherlands and other countries with outdoor cultural deposits.
Electric bikes are becoming more popular. Public data shows that from 2017 to 2021, E-bike sales in the European and American markets increased from 2.5 million to 6.4 million.
By comparison, China’s e-bike sales in 2020 will be only 140,000 units.
The era of artificial intelligence has arrived. Everything “+ AI” has become the trend, but simple and roughly added up, the effect may not be satisfactory.
Imagine that one day your home’s smart refrigerator, smart washing machine also added ChatGPT, coldly told you “master, to ensure adequate sleep will help energize”, how will you feel?
Perhaps the dialogue is only the external manifestation of ChatGPT.
Its power lies in the ability to do alternative primary work after understanding natural language, such as summarizing and organizing text, basic programming, primary logic operations, the big model behind these abilities combined with specific scenarios and retraining, in order to play the effect of 1+1>2.
