A company based in Bath will this week launch a Kickstarter campaign that aims to raise £500,000 to bring to market a “passive safety” device called CycloShield aimed at reducing the danger to people riding bikes on the road.
The team behind the start-up business, which attaches to a bike’s seatpost, say it has three key features aimed at improving the safety of cyclists – “threat detection, offenders recording and SOS.”
They claim it can “detect the approach or threat of another vehicle and perform actions about it,” as well as notifying users of roads where there is an increased risk of being involved in a collision.
A camera within the device captures footage of vehicles, enabling incidents such as close passes to be recorded.
In the event of a crash, the device can notify an “In Case of Emergency” (ICE) contact as well as alerting the emergency services with the rider’s GPS location with the aim of reducing emercency response time.
It comes with integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and is claimed to be “compatible with the majority of activity monitors and mobile applications on the market.”
As with any Kickstarter project, a variety of rewards are on offer depending on the size of the pledge, but to be eligible for one that includes the CycloShield device itself requires a minimum investment of £299 for the Super Early Bird package.
The Kickstarter campaign can be previewed here.
10 thoughts on “CycloShield bike safety device comes to Kickstarter”
Ok. It’s going to be going
Ok. It’s going to be going off ALL the time. Lots of recordings. But, there we are.
It’s massive. I thought it was going to be a nice mini thing.
And, real estate. You add the warning safety system to your seatpost and off goes your main light.
Fizik have a little pullout
Fizik have a little pullout on some saddles where you can stick in a light or accessory. When all this tech can fit into a space like that, then it will catch on. But the way it is at the moment.. few people want a ridiculous box hanging off the back of their bike. You create another problem – where on earth do you store it if you’re commuting. You can’t leave it on the bike, so you have to lug it about all day in your bag if going shopping or leave at work. And cyclists out for a hard ride.. hope in hell this will catch on with them. Hope. In. Hell.
Get some serious engineers in and develop something small and functional and discreet. Employ the space under the saddle or inside the seatpost, or both. Don’t just stick a bunch of existing componentry in a huge box and try and sell it to people. Oh yes, there’s an app. Well big deal, there are toothbrushes with apps now.
Christ, it’s huge!
Christ, it’s huge!
Also, I get that if the worst happened you would want the emergency services contacted, but most incidents thankfully result in the rider jumping up and getting bak on their bike. The emergency services are soon going to tire of that, or is there a button you can press to tell everybody that you’re ok?
Big, lots of useless
Big, lots of useless functions… all u need is rear radar like from garmin, but what beeps alerts in ear thru phone app about oncoming wehicle from back… And with this dimensions it will be losted in first pothole.
What exactly does this mean
What exactly does this mean “detect the approach or threat of another vehicle and perform actions about it,”
What exactly can it do about a car that’s coming up behind you and about to pass you a bit too close……shoot out a laser to stop it…what?….sweet FA except beeping at you to ‘warn’ you, but then what can I do?, the act of being warned is distracting in itself.
Also ‘as well as notifying users of roads where there is an increased risk of being involved in a collision’, at risk based on what criteria, the state of the road, the time of day, the weather, the number of previous accidents, none of which are really much use in determining if you are at greater risk.
It can also record video of offending vehicles, wow great so more film that the Police will do nothing about and doesn’t the Fly6 already do this and in a much smaller package and built into a rear light.
As someone else has already said on an average commute this thing would just be one constant alarm.
And it’s £300 quid if you get in early….WTF!!!!
The video seems rather
The video seems rather strange. For a Bath based start up why would you film a promotional video in what I assume is Spain? Maybe they should have saved some money and filmed in the UK?
I hate to be cynical but this just looks like someone using Kickstarter to fund a wholesale purchase & import of someone else’s product. That isn’t what I thought crowd funding was all about but I admit to being ignorant of the details of crowd funding.
Holy shit, kill it with fire!
Holy shit, kill it with fire!
A’ll no be investin.
Looking to raise £500K —
Looking to raise £500K — someone is flying a kite. Bad design and none of their own money — hmm.
Also, given that it’s ostenisbly aimed at urban mishaps, why the need for a GPS locator and the ICE contact thingey.
I’m out.
brilliant idea, this will be
brilliant idea, this will be a detterent to many bad drivers
WayFayer wrote:
Yeah. All those bad drivers keeping an eye on the latest cycling kickstarter projects.