New e-bike auto shifting features debut alongside another new TRP drivetrain, plus firmware updates to ease your range anxiety with AI.
AI-managed assist levels to preserve battery life
At some point – and that point may already have passed – the term “AI” will have multiple generally-recognized definitions, the one relevant here being “synonym for computer”. Any semblance of AI being the precursor to general computer intelligence is now, at best, fleeting, swallowed whole by jargon and puffery.
To suggest that AI is aiding with the very specialized yet not world-impacting concept of battery management is either: 1) the peak of marketing nonsense, or 2) a staggering waste of what would be world-changing technology, if AI is the panacea it’s been claimed to be. I’m leaning towards the former.
In that sense, I’m surprised they called the other feature as “auto shifting” and not “AI assisted gear changes”. I can’t wait for my AI-boosted bicycle wheels. /s
We’re well past the point, the term is already wildly abused: AI in the literal sense does not exist at all, we have what are basically glorified autocorrect bots that people figured out how to apply to other things (machine learning) and often times, it’s not even that, it’s just a bunch of underpaid staff in some shitty office somewhere working to give the illusion of functional AI.
It has become a buzzword companies try to cram into everything to board the hype train.
Hard nope for me. ABS is coming to E-bikes. Now an automatic transmission? Call me old fashioned but I’d like to retain some control of my bicycle.
Nothing wrong with that, even my car is manual transmission and I love it.
The least amount of electronics on my bike - the better. I have a motor, battery, and a control panel to oversee the former and nothing more. The rest of the bike is acoustic, serviceable, cheap, and long lasting. I don’t have to worry about bad software bricking my shifters.
I’ve ridden Shimano STEPS with auto-shifting. It was cool. Not sure if I’d want it on my personal bike.
