Whizzbang Treat Alert W/Video

[PedalUma]

Is mounting an AI enabled device that alerts a cyclist to approaching threats from ahead and behind while recording and displaying those potential threats another techno distraction from being in the real world, or a massive benefit?
I got rolled coal in a group ride last month. The driver assailed a bunch of us including a seven year-old girl. The Chief of Police sort of blew it off because there was no video.
Yesterday my co-worker/boss was verbally accosted and threatened twice on his commute. Evidence would at least put those two drivers on watch.
If you wanted such a set-up what features would you want? Given that many people have HB mounted phones already.
Personally, I see benefits to commuters and mostly cargo moms with this emerging tech. For me being present and situationally aware is more important than looking down at a screen or rewinding old grievances.

 

[6zfshdb]

Such a device should include a can of spray paint that would put a "racing stripe" on the side of the offending vehicle as it passes.

 

[Watana Bob]

Garmin varia has a model that records video for threats from the rear, maybe a go pro for the front?

 

[PedalUma]

Garmin varia has a model that records video for threats from the rear, maybe a go pro for the front?

One problem with Roadio is that they do not have semi-connectors of differing lengths to accommodate road bikes, commuter bikes, and cargo bikes. The extra lengths get round around or in some cases are too short.

 

[Bubba zanetti]

You’d want an insta 360 cam mounted on the helmet. True 360 degree view. Magical video.

 

[fooferdoggie]

I have the cameras but for my commute, it gets old having to charge them every day as I never catch anything. so I only use them on the tandem and not on every ride. You need something that does not require much maintenance.

 

[sc00ter]

I was watching a Inside Edition special today on insurance fraud. A car will stop on the interstate in front of you, you stop and they slam their car in reverse-claiming you rear ended them. Up to four bums will get out holding their neck. Dash cams should be mandatory for all vehicles at this point OR give us who use them a worthwhile discount on auto insurance. But anyways, back on topic. My co-worker sent me a video of a front/rear camera for bikes. I erased the video by mistake but it looked like a self-contained set-up that you could run off your USB port on a ebike. I still never got around to figuring out the DJI I purchased. Come to think about it I haven't seen the box in weeks...

I'll ask if my co-worker if he could find that bike based video system again.

 

[Allan47.7339]

I've been using Cycliq cameras. Battery life is about six to seven hours. They are purpose designed as a cycling "dash cam". https://cycliq.com/ I used to ride a long solo commute so I considered it my "flight recorder". If you crash, you probably won't remember what happened since it's like unplugging your computer in the middle of saving your work.

 

[drewberz]

I used to work at Roadio so am obviously biased.

A lot of the issues people laid out in this thread are issues you would hear repeatedly across different people from different places. Longevity of battery life, ideal mounting spots, and generally just a low friction experience to start riding are necessary for any bike-related product. Charging especially sucks.

I hope cameras become more ubiquitous to share all the fun experiences of riding, but also hold people to account and put hard numbers to certain incidents, including close passes (in CA 3ft. is legally required).

The 'AI alerts' are unique in that they give you more situational awareness. But also the potential is much greater. The camera could automate sending off footage if the clip met certain requirements. This means the rider does not have to do anything (again, low effort).

Garmin Varia is a decent product, but for a couple reasons I don't think it's GREAT: limited by battery life (some), radar and not video (some), not 360 view and can be 'noisy' in city settings.

IMO nothing beats safety for riders like physical separation, and that is what I really care about which will get more people on bikes and more people staying on bikes.

 

[gromike]

And I remember the day when you just rode your bike. No camera, no GPS, and if you wanted music you sang.

 

[drewberz]

And I remember the day when you just rode your bike. No camera, no GPS, and if you wanted music you sang.

Careful, you just outted yourself as the brakeless fixie rider.

 

[gromike]

No, just road riding in the late sixties, early seventies.

 

[PCeBiker]

IMO nothing beats safety for riders like physical separation, and that is what I really care about which will get more people on bikes and more people staying on bikes.

And I remember the day when you just rode your bike. No camera, no GPS, and if you wanted music you sang.

I have the luxury of being able to ride completely alone on the backcountry gravel roads that I ride,...

I can ride no-hands for over half an hour without having to touch the handlebars.

I don't want music stirring up any adrenaline in me.
What I'm doing is dangerously fun enough for me.

 

[PCeBiker]

Careful, you just outted yourself as the brakeless fixie rider.

Both my ebikes both have Very Effective brakes, but I rarely need to use them.
(But I am always fixing things that aren't broken. )

 

[PedalUma]

Hey, why is it that you can sing in your car but if you do on a bike people think you are nuts? I personally like to be in the real game and not looking down at a screen.

 

[PCeBiker]

I used to sing in my car all time when I had my Big Stereo System installed and I was delivering pizzas in the 90's

I delivered a pizza and the neighbor called the store to complain.

He told my boss that my music was so loud that it woke him up, and my singing was so loud it woke his wife up.

I was signing AC/DC A Touch Too Much at the time.
The only way I can sing it and hit all the notes is to belt it out at about 140 decibels.

When I got back to the store, the manager tried to give me s*it but couldn't keep the smile off his face.

He just told me to turn it down when I'm a couple blocks from the delivery address and it's 2 o'clock in the morning.


I remember reading a newspaper article about a guy in the US that was singing something aggressive in his car at a park somewhere.
He was charged with trying to incite a riot.

I'm glad I live in Canada
They just think I'm nuts when I sing, but they don't try to put me in jail or shoot me.

 

[drewberz]

I have the luxury of being able to ride completely alone on the backcountry gravel roads that I ride,...

View attachment 185774

I can ride no-hands for over half an hour without having to touch the handlebars.

I don't want music stirring up any adrenaline in me.
What I'm doing is dangerously fun enough for me.

Beautiful! So fortunate to have access to a route like that.

 

[PedalUma]

Today at work we played film scores for our day's sound track. It made everything I did so romantic, heroic, bold, dashing, and dramatic. Like tightening a seat post to Darth Vader's theme! When the theme from James Bond came on I asked my friend what film it is from. When he said, I said, 'How do you know that?'

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I think there are a bunch of assumptions here. Curating training data and training an AI is expensive and hard and there aren't a lot of people out there with the skills to do it. Which makes it even more expensive. Nearly all "AI" cameras use a pretrained general-purpose vision model with some limited categories for that purpose. If those categories can map onto your problem great. If not you have a lot of work to do.

State-of-the art AIs are notoriously voracious consumers of power and CPU cycles and putting all that in an affordable battery-powered setup on a bicycle is not simple. If you looked to power this with your e-bike battery you'd measurably reduce your range, probably much more than you'd find acceptable.

 

[drewberz]

I think there are a bunch of assumptions here. Curating training data and training an AI is expensive and hard and there aren't a lot of people out there with the skills to do it. Which makes it even more expensive. Nearly all "AI" cameras use a pretrained general-purpose vision model with some limited categories for that purpose. If those categories can map onto your problem great. If not you have a lot of work to do.

State-of-the art AIs are notoriously voracious consumers of power and CPU cycles and putting all that in an affordable battery-powered setup on a bicycle is not simple. If you looked to power this with your e-bike battery you'd measurably reduce your range, probably much more than you'd find acceptable.

What assumptions are you referring to?

The power consumption is not as high as I think you think it is and thus it will not 'measurably reduce your range'. But your points on being expensive and hard are both true.

There are a handful doing it at various stages. Check out: Roadio, Velo AI, Luna, Hawkeye.