Spoke: Safe Cycling Worldwide Thanks to the IoT

Cycling protects the environment and your wallet and helps you keep fit, but it can also be dangerous, especially in traffic with cars and trucks. Spoke and Telekom aim to change that – by means of IoT technology.

Because of climate change, because fuel prices are too high, because we get too little daily exercise, because of chronically congested streets, especially in city center, there are many reasons to make the bicycle your chosen means of personal transport. In Germany the pushbike is more popular than ever. In 2022, according to the Two-Wheeler Industry Association (ZIV), there were around 83 million bicycles in Germany – just short of the country’s total population. E-bike numbers are rising rapidly too: more than sixfold from 1.6 million in 2013 to nearly 10 million in 2022.

But the number of traffic accidents involving cyclists is also high. In 2021 the Federal Statistics Office recorded nearly 84,000 cases  of personal injury. In over 70 percent of cases other road users or vehicles, mainly cars, were involved and in three out of four cases the cyclists were not to blame. So it is fair to say, as the 2021 Cycle Monitor for Germany did, that reckless motorists were one of the most frequently stated reasons why cyclists felt unsafe in traffic. Spoke, a U.S. company, would like to improve the situation worldwide with its smart hard- and software solutions to make cycling safer. It is assisted by Telekom and the Internet of Things (IoT).

As vulnerable road users, cyclists have little to protect themselves in an accident with a car or a truck. The cause of many crashes is as simple as it is serious: one road user has simply not seen the other. There has been talk for some time about connected cars that are networked with each other and the traffic infrastructure by mobile communications and can, for example, warn other vehicles or their drivers in dicey situations. C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything, see box) is one of the most promising technologies in this context. Spoke is transferring the principle as VRU2X to bikes and comparable vehicles such as motorcycles or e-scooters, making them as visible as connected cars in digital road traffic.

Spoke has developed a system consisting of hard- and software that provides solutions for both bikes and cars. It is to be available in the U.S., Canada and Europe from the end of 2023. For two-wheelers three devices are at the redsy. Spoke Connect is a pocket-size connectivity solution that makes a bicycle digitally visible for other road users like connected cars. Spoke Vision, similar in design to a smartphone, is fixed to the handlebar and gives the cyclist visual and acoustic signals on the traffic. Spoke C-Me is a rear light with a built-in camera that takes the place of the bike’s missing rearview mirror. When a vehicle approaches the bike from the rear the system relays a camera image to the handlebar-mounted display.

Cars can be equipped with the Spoke solution too. With the appropriate technology in place, especially a display and the wireless module, the driver is shown at an early stage that there is a cyclist ahead. That reduces the risk of dangerous situations due to vulnerable road users being overlooked.

The right connectivity is a cornerstone of this technology. It is provided by Telekon’s T IoT offering, which offers Spoke a number of advantages, starting with simple, internationally uniform tariffs plus optimal network coverage and performance thanks to LTE and 5G support worldwide and thereby in Soke’s key markets the U.S. and Europe. Reliability and soeed are decisive, especially in connection with C-V2X, and swift reaction times or low latencies are crucial in road traffic if dangerous situations are to be avoided.

In principle, cellular technology makes it possible in this use case to increase the system’s virtual range of vision to an almost unlimited extent. Cyclists can already see vehicles on their display screen before they are within their range of hearing or vision. If, for instance, they know that an ambulance will shortly overtake them they can quickly head for the side of the road to clear the way for the emergency vehicle.

Contextual information about the surroundings can also be relayed to the Spoke hardware by LTE or 5G. Are schools, kindergartens or construction sites ahead that require special care and attention? Are there crosswalks behind bends that are hard to see from afar? Potential hazards of this kind are seen by users on a map on the Spoke Vision display. The data comes from the Cloud; separate roadside wireless modules are not required.

Spoke’s main aim is to improve road safety, but the solution offers further options both for end users and for enterprises. Other offers or services can be integrated into the software and the software can be built into existing apps. The additional services include, for example, fitness tracking, navigation services and the provision of traffic reports. By including options of this kind with their bikes bicycle manufacturers can set themselves apart from the competition. In the end cycling is made not only safer but also more practical and more comfortable.