For the new model year, Bosch eBike Systems is presenting a service that quickly provides assistance in the event of an accident – thus further enhancing safety when eBiking. Help Connect is a premium function of the COBI.Bike app and gives eBikers a digital companion that will alert a trained service team in the event of an emergency. The service team will then initiate the rescue chain as necessary. “Safety is of the utmost priority for us. That’s why we are always working on technologies and solutions to make eBiking even safer”, says Claus Fleischer, CEO of Bosch eBike Systems. “Like our eBike ABS, Help Connect can also play a valuable role in eBike safety. It will help save time in critical situations.”
Emergency call following automatic accident detection
The first few minutes are vitally important after an accident happens. Precious time is often lost before someone finds an eBike rider who has crashed and the emergency services find the scene of the incident. This is where the COBI.Bike app and Help Connect come in: The smartphone app uses an intelligent algorithm to recognise that the eBiker has fallen and how bad the accident was likely to have been. In the event of an accident, an emergency call is made via Help Connect. A trained service team on call around the clock is alerted, and immediately informs the emergency services.
“Automatic emergency call systems are already familiar in cars, where they are now actually mandatory for new vehicle models. However, the system also makes sense for eBikes too,” explains Claus Fleischer. That’s because cyclists often ride alone. If a rider has a fall on a remote route or trail, it can have serious consequences. “Help Connect accompanies eBikers on their trips, not only giving them a sense of security, but also their friends and family.”
Geolocation and manual activation
To help the emergency services get to the scene of the accident quickly, Help Connect uses the smartphone’s data connection to transmit the current coordinates and the severity of the accident. After an accident has been detected, the smartphone emits warning tones to alert anyone in the immediate area. First aiders can be made aware of the accident more quickly, enabling faster assistance. In addition, eBikers can also contact the Help Connect Service manually at any time. “We developed this feature in collaboration with Bosch.IO GmbH. The Help Connect service is also available for cars, motorcycles and smart homes. This makes us all the more pleased that eBikers will now also benefit from this digital companion in future,” explains Claus Fleischer.
Help Connect availability
Help Connect is available for iOS and Android devices. To be able to use the premium function, the smartphone on which the COBI.Bike App is installed must be connected to a mobile network. In addition, Help Connect is currently only available to users with German SIM cards. This SIM card enables users to communicate with the service team in German or English, even beyond Germany’s borders in the following countries: Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy and Spain. Help Connect is a premium function of the COBI.Bike app and is available for eBikes with SmartphoneHub and COBI.Bike.
SOURCE: Bosch
