A device you wear on your wrist could alert you to a rider in your group falling behind, contact emergency if you crash and even monitor your riding behaviour.
The smart wearable Motobit SENTINEL for motorcyclists is now seeking crowdfunding through Indiegogo.
So far the campaign has raised $A4546 or 18% of its $25,000 goal from 28 backers in the first couple days with a month to go.
It will cost $A180 (€109, $US130) for supporters and the retail cost when/if it goes to market in May 2021 will be $A280 (€169, $US200).
Please note that Indiegogo and Kickstarter do not offer refunds to supporters who pledge money for products that either fail to reach their goal or do reach their goal and then fail through fraud.
So how does it work?
Motobit SENTINEL connects via Bluetooth to your smartphone and the Motobit app provides the rider with warnings about potentially dangerous situations through strong vibration feedback, called haptics.
They say the haptic response is “non-distracting” so the rider can keep their focus on the road.
There are some interesting, helpful and dubious features of the wearable device.
Like many emergency call features now available, it will call the ambulance or a nominated contract if it detects you have crashed from its G force sensors. You can obviously override these if you’ve just dropped the your bike!
A useful feature is in group riding where the combination of two devices or more can alert a lead rider if another group motorcyclist cannot keep up or has crashed.
A dubious feature is its use of algorithms to monitor rider behaviour and analyse the course of the road ahead to suggest the adequate riding speed.
Surely that’s part of simple road craft!
We also worry about its ability to provide incriminating information to the police or your insurer!
Motobit SENTINEL can be worn on on your wrist, attached to your trouser belt, kidney belt or in your pants or jacket pocket.
Motobit Sentinel is the product of two years of research and development by Austrian company motobit GmbH, which was founded by two motorcycle enthusiasts.