Editor’s be aware: Ford Motor Co. is collaborating on creating the security normal for bicycle-to-vehicle know-how. An earlier model of this story misstated the character of Ford’s actions with the know-how.
Automobiles can work together with different automobiles, infrastructure and pedestrians by way of CV2X, or mobile vehicle-to-everything know-how.
One group of {industry} leaders is searching for to broaden on the concept behind this know-how by creating requirements to make safer the interactions between vehicles and other forms of wheels on the street: bicycles.
Michigan-based Tome Software, bicycle firm Trek, Ford Motor Co. — which owns e-scooter firm Spin — and different companions have been collaborating on B2V, or bicycle-to-vehicle, pointers to assist automobiles talk with bikes, scooters and roadside infrastructure associated to biking.
It is an vital collaboration contemplating the variety of weak street customers, equivalent to cyclists, pedestrians and scooter riders. It is also well timed given the elevated curiosity in bike and scooter ridership for the reason that onset of the pandemic final spring, stated Eric Bjorling, model advertising and marketing director at Trek.
“What you will see post-COVID is extra of an consciousness of the shared nature of transportation pathways, whether or not that is roads, trails, streets,” Bjorling advised Automotive Information. “COVID has accelerated and accentuated the necessity for [B2V].”
Trek, Ford and Tome started engaged on B2V 4 years in the past, a novel collaboration amongst a motorcycle firm, an automaker and a tech startup. The companions have since labored with others within the {industry} with comparable objectives for B2V requirements.
“With out that construction, we felt strongly that you wouldn’t have the ability to get [B2V] deployed in manufacturing,” stated Tome CEO Jake Sigal. “We have seen that in auto earlier than with AV security requirements, however we have not seen a lot of that on the patron facet. And in contrast to vehicles, bicycles and scooters aren’t going to be regulated. There’s at all times going to be somebody that is going to be using a classic, 1979 Schwinn bicycle.”
Final month, Tome, Trek and Ford — together with auto provider Bosch; biking know-how firm Hammerhead; and bicycle elements makers Shimano, Specialised and SRAM — joined SAE Trade Applied sciences, an affiliate of SAE Worldwide, to create a proper nine-member consortium.
“The important thing right here is getting an agreeable normal framework for making adjustments to current messages in addition to what’s required or what’s optionally available,” Sigal stated. “Nothing we’re doing shall be required tools on a car or a bicycle. Having this know-how is optionally available; but when you are going to do it, and it will be B2V-certified, then we have to agree on what are the minimal necessities you want so as to put B2V on packaging, per se.”
The problem of making these requirements?
“Not solely do it’s important to get the bicycle and shopper gadget firms like cell phones, like accent firms, to all agree on requirements, you then additionally need to get automobiles to just accept any type of a framework for bringing in these messages,” Sigal stated.
However, “as an alternative of developing with a brand new normal to develop, we’re basing our work on the prevailing requirements that SAE has that have already got industry-standard buy-in from the automotive {industry}.”
The group’s members are growing prototypes, a few of which had been demonstrated throughout CES final month.
Trek, for example, is straight integrating B2V sensors into its taillight, which is designed to alert drivers of the presence of a bike owner.
Ford is presently collaborating on creating the security normal. Specialised is working to combine B2V know-how with its Trip biking app.
The pandemic boosted bike and scooter ridership in cities across the globe. Rising ridership has necessitated higher infrastructure, equivalent to extra devoted bike lanes in metropolis facilities, in addition to larger give attention to bike owner and rider security.
“We predict this bike increase is sustainable, and we predict that this buy increase is definitely going to dovetail properly right into a using increase,” Bjorling stated. “This work turns into much more vital now than ever earlier than, in that you’ll have extra individuals on the roads basically.”