This E-Bike With Built-In ChatGPT Is the Epitome of Overblown AI Hype

fooferdoggie

fooferdoggie

Well-Known Member
what would the point be?

AI hype has officially reached “Metaverse” levels of incomprehensibility. Large language models are a wormhole sucking in any and all tech companies looking to promote long-existing products, and now e-bike maker Urtopia is one of the first companies trying to force chatbots on users who are simply trying to travel from A to B.


In a press release, Urtopia shared scant details for its latest smart e-bike features other than that its products were getting access to ChatGPT. This feature would apparently sit alongside existing built-in navigation capabilities and connections to apps like Apple Health and Strava. Gizmodo reached out to the company for clarification, but we did not immediately hear back. Instead,we’re left with many, small questions but only one that actually matters: why?


gizmodo.com

This E-Bike With Built-In ChatGPT Is the Epitome of Overblown AI Hype

The new tech hype ‘cycle’ becomes literal as Urtopia shoves a chatbot onto a bike for no good reason. Other vehicle companies are already considering the same.
gizmodo.com gizmodo.com
 
Maybe the new software will monitor your sensors and use ChatGPT and text-to-voice to nag you about how you're riding.
"What a wimp! Max assist on this hill??"
"You're downshifting too late."
"The average cyclist would be going 15 mph here. Why are you so slow?"

Addendum: Not to mention the dreaded, "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."
 
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There are young people in my family/world that think they need a refrigerator or a patio grill with an app on their phone to control them. I like an ebike that I don't have to think about. I want to think about the ride, the people I'm with, the scenery and the traffic that might be trying to kill me 🤔

It was a few years ago that I ranted about not wanting a bike that relied on my phone or over the air mobile connectivity. I still feel that way. I ride in remote areas where there is often no signal. I'm no luddite, I've owned personal computers since 1982. I just have perspective. When I was young I had a great relationship with my great grandmother, born in the 1800's. She would say, you'll come to appreciate the simple things in life. The ebike is just a means to an end.

It's the unknown around the corner that spins my wheels... the ebike just assists.
 
Having an app for a device is nice, until firmware updates. The life of an app reliant device is extremely limited. You’ll never know when the app will stop working. (My favorite is when the app gets an update and signs you out, then you have to play password games to gain access)

I’ve seen (looking at you, apple) the firmware of a device surpass the supported firmware version of an app. Then you need to wait (and hope and pray) that the devs update their app for the new firmware. Your app won’t work until/if that happens.
 
JedidiahStolzfus said:
Sounds groundbreaking. I challenge any of you to find a more groundbreaking bike.
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Groundbreaking isn't always a good thing;)

groundbreaking.png
 
Jeremy McCreary said:
Maybe the new software will monitor your sensors and use ChatGPT and text-to-voice to nag you about how you're riding.
"What a wimp! Max assist on this hill??"
"You're downshifting too late."
"The average cyclist would be going 15 mph here. Why are you so slow?"

Addendum: Not to mention the dreaded, "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."
Click to expand...
No human controlled vehicles allowed on high speed highways, and I expect the county line would still be as far as you can get without walking.
 
My friend asked me what I thought of the Urtopia a few days ago. She had a Cannondale carbon bike (non-electric) which was light as a feather. We both have Priority Current's. We're both fans of the Current, but she seems to miss the lightweight Cannondale for casual neighborhood riding. I get that.

In any case, I was mildly intrigued by the Urtopia when it was first introduced last year, but ultimately underwhelmed by the razzle dazzle technology. I took a closer look again this week, and the newer 1S model wasn't available when I first looked last year. I like innovative new toys as much as anyone, but there isn't much new tech on the Urtopia cockpit that I would have real-world use for. Essentially, it offers cool solutions to non-existent problems. Then again, I'm not in an urban setting where things like turn signals, and thumb print security comes into play very often. I also don't like the idea of relying on quirky phone apps to access features, such as they are.

With that said, I like the sleek carbon frame and belt drive. Ideally, I'd be more interested in a carbon bike with a belt IGH and at least somewhat wider, more versatile rubber. Less is more regarding the tech on the Urtopia as it stands. I'm more interested in practical minimalism, but admittedly I'm not the BMW type of rider Urtopia is marketed for.
 
While this ChatGPT integration appears more hype than substance, on this forum others have raised arguments for/against some sort of beacon on the bike, or from a phone carried by the rider, transmitting "I am a bicycle/e-bike" for the AI software driving Autonomous vehicles. Frankly if AI driven vehicles need external cues to supplement their own on-board sensors they aren't ready for prime time. The onus should be on the vehicle, not the bike, for them to be able to recognize our presence on the road in front of them, and rapidly calculate our position, direction, bearing, and speed, so they can take action that avoids a collision.

Neighbors this week reported spotting private company Cruise mapping local roads for possible AV trials of Robotaxi's.
 
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AI or machine learning or code scraping or absolute automation or whatever you want to call it is already at holy sht level and will be at whats the point to life level in ten years.

There is now code that writes South Park episodes, it writes the script from your suggestions, adds in any celeb you want , writes the jokes, satire, edgy humour and creates the entire cartoon in the exact same level of detail and resolution within hours.

I mean..just think of that..not a year into people jumping the bandwagon.
 
ChatGPT is good at pattern matching, but is it still making up fictitious citations? Can't be trusted, but can be used to spread disinformation. Prompt engineering appears to be the current suggested workaround.
 
Dewey said:
Frankly if AI driven vehicles need external cues to supplement their own on-board sensors they aren't ready for prime time
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Same could be said of human driven vehicles. Not sure that we do all that great even with all the external cues already built in to help us. I do agree that AI should be held to a higher standard.
 
Great post, Foofer-- and Randall, I love that about the French translation!

I think AI has actually been with us for quite a while. My browser, phone, and medical records systems all try to predict what I need or what I'm going to do. To me, AI is just a more powerful processor trying to do the same thing.

Charge, I'm not so sure about the evolution of AI. My hunch? It will be infected by advertising and planned obsolescence and stop working properly, just like its ancestors. It will suck. Of course it will suck. That's how unregulated markets work: Products evolve, hit the peak of their evolution, and then start getting worse. The only winning strategy is to try to guess the top of the curve, purchase a product that is near the peak of its evolution, and then try to keep it forever.

When I bought my $2,000 49 pound FS eMTB, I actually had forgotten this. I thought, "There will probably be a 41 or 42 pound bike available for $2,500 or $3,500 in a few years, I really should wait, but I am too impatient."

I'm glad I didn't wait, because now, there are no commercially built FS or even hardtail bikes under 50 pounds that cost less than five grand. Of course there aren't. What was I thinking?!

You could argue 'well, lighter, more efficient bikes are not what most people want, they want more integration with their phones and online lives.' I'm sure there are marketing and R&D folks who can provide statistics to support that point of view.

But that argument does not pass the smell test. What I believe is that no one cares what I want. No one cares what you want. No one cares about what young people want, either. It is assumed that we will buy what is available-- the end.

I also think it's a myth that those young whippersnappers are driving the push to eJunk. Well, sure, some of them are, but plenty of old farts are doing the same thing. More generally, my experience has been that young people hate eJunk as much as anyone else, there's just more learned helplessness for some, and the with issues of habituation are harder for that demographic because they are assaulted when they are younger and more vulnerable.

And things do not have to be this way. If you look at user-developed shareware, or cheapware, what you see is reasonable, sensible development and upgrades, just like in the days before Windows 95. OpenOffice, LibreOffice for word processing, Reaper for audio recording-- you can go from version 2.3 to 5.7 or whatever without having to relearn a completely new interface, you can open files you created eight or 12 years ago with no compatibility issues. And the new versions actually work better than the previous ones. They are measurably more efficient and capable, require fewer keystrokes or taps, and can do things the earlier versions can't.

Young people have also taught me more about how to unplug and disconnect than anyone my own age or than I could ever have figured out on my own. They are the solution, not part of the problem.

Hey, if there's part of the market that wants AI on their bikes, why not? The problem is, the market doesn't care if anyone who doesn't gets screwed.
 
J.R. said:
There are young people in my family/world that think they need a refrigerator or a patio grill with an app on their phone to control them. I like an ebike that I don't have to think about. I want to think about the ride, the people I'm with, the scenery and the traffic that might be trying to kill me 🤔

It was a few years ago that I ranted about not wanting a bike that relied on my phone or over the air mobile connectivity. I still feel that way. I ride in remote areas where there is often no signal. I'm no luddite, I've owned personal computers since 1982. I just have perspective. When I was young I had a great relationship with my great grandmother, born in the 1800's. She would say, you'll come to appreciate the simple things in life. The ebike is just a means to an end.

It's the unknown around the corner that spins my wheels... the ebike just assists.
Click to expand...
I have considered this, controllers are pretty complicated bits of kit.
Brushed motor and a big fat rheostat on the bars.
Steampunk.
 
Steampunk. Great word. I had to google it.
In the final analysis, the flashy tech on the Urtopia is largely irrelevant to riding. Too bad, because the lightweight frame is very appealing.
 
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