Bicycles

iweech e-bike automatically modulates power to ensure you get from A to B

iweech e-bike automatically modulates power to ensure you get from A to B
The iweech analyzes your route and automatically chooses how much electrical assistance it'll provide
The iweech analyzes your route and automatically chooses how much electrical assistance it'll provide
View 5 Images
The iweech has a 350-watt mid-mounted Brose motor powered by a removable 36-volt/13.8-Ah/497-Wh lithium battery
1/5
The iweech has a 350-watt mid-mounted Brose motor powered by a removable 36-volt/13.8-Ah/497-Wh lithium battery
The iweech tips the scales at a claimed 18 kg (39.7 lb)
2/5
The iweech tips the scales at a claimed 18 kg (39.7 lb)
The iweech analyzes your route and automatically chooses how much electrical assistance it'll provide
3/5
The iweech analyzes your route and automatically chooses how much electrical assistance it'll provide
The iweech's mode-select button
4/5
The iweech's mode-select button
One 3.5-hour charge of the iweech's battery should be good for a range of approximately 160 km (99 miles)
5/5
One 3.5-hour charge of the iweech's battery should be good for a  range of approximately 160 km (99 miles)
View gallery - 5 images

On a typical e-bike, you choose between different levels of electrical assistance. While the temptation is to select the maximum, what if that uses up the battery before you reach your destination? The French-designed iweech e-bike is claimed to automatically select the optimum level, so you do get where you're going, but with minimal effort.

As you regularly ride the iweech to work, school or wherever, it utilizes an artificial intelligence system to learn the different routes that you travel, along with your individual riding style. When you then press a button on its top tube, putting it into i.Ride mode, it puts that knowledge to use.

In a nutshell, the bike predicts where you're going, based on the route that you're following. It then takes several factors into account, such as the battery level, the distance you have to travel, the topography of your route, and the wind speed/direction. Analyzing these, it proceeds to automatically choose how much electrical assistance it'll provide, selecting the highest level that won't result in your having a dead battery before reaching your destination.

The iweech has a 350-watt mid-mounted Brose motor powered by a removable 36-volt/13.8-Ah/497-Wh lithium battery
The iweech has a 350-watt mid-mounted Brose motor powered by a removable 36-volt/13.8-Ah/497-Wh lithium battery

Should you be going somewhere that the system hasn't "learned" yet, you can use an accompanying iOS/Android app to tell it your destination (and thus the approximate route you'll be following), before heading out.

The bike itself has a 350-watt mid-mounted Brose motor powered by a removable 36-volt/13.8-Ah/497-Wh lithium battery. One 3.5-hour charge should be good for a range of approximately 160 km (99 mi). Other features include front and rear hydraulic disc brakes, a single-speed belt-drive drivetrain, an auto-illuminating 205-lumen LED headlight, a motion-sensitive anti-theft alarm, and GPS-enabled tracking in case it gets stolen anyway.

The whole thing tips the scales at a claimed 18 kg (39.7 lb).

If the iweech seems like it's up your alley, you can preorder one through its current Kickstarter campaign. A pledge of €1,995 (about US$2,256) is required, which is 43 percent off the planned retail price. If it reaches its goal, it should ship to backers in May.

Sources: Kickstarter, iweech

View gallery - 5 images
5 comments
5 comments
Daishi
If range is that big of an issue it seems like throwing a 2nd battery at it is a more elegant solution than using all the AI systems to make assumptions about the destination and try to base assistance off of those estimates. It would be really hard to get that system to work well in a natural way especially since it has to make adjustments after that allowing bursts of power for getting up to speed or climbing hills. The retail price after the kickstarter will end up about $4,000 USD. There is a bike called the "FTH Power X2-F Abyss" that sets out to solve this with a 2 mounted 556.8Wh batteries for $2,000 USD. Another alternative is something like the Juiced CrossCurrent X which uses a 52v 19.2 Ah battery which works out to 998.4 Wh. It's one battery but comes in just shy of double the capacity of this for $2,300. You could hit 2,000 Wh of battery capacity if you buy a spare battery and mount it to the rear rack. It would cost $3,600 total but it's 4 times the capacity of this and would get 140+ miles of range. It would be difficult for the AI system to manage the range better than the human on it who knows the destination and sees the remaining charge. Battery prices have come down so now the system to try to best the human at managing battery capacity costs more than just quadrupling the battery capacity.
paul314
I guess this is about maximizing the interval between charges. Because if your daily commute is anywhere near 160 km you probably shouldn't be using an e-bike for it. Even if you can average 40 km/h that's a long time on a bike seat.
Doodah
I'm a bit skeptical that this will actually be helpful in the real world. I'd much rather manage this myself until it's been calibrated for a few years. Also, 2.25k at a %45 discount is way too much for a 350 watt motor driven bike. You can get way more for less than that. For example I got 1000 watts at roughly the same price. Range is more like 50 miles, but 50 is a much more realistic daily range. Most people will have access to charging within 30 miles or so.
Towerman
Wonderful to see Ebikes improve by huge leaps every few months, they are really going to take over !
piperTom
Everything that Daishi said, plus this: I usually want to go somewhere AND come back.