Ford is testing out safety tech allowing bikes, e-scooters to ‘talk’ to cars

If bicycles and e-scooters could “talk” to cars on the road, riders would be safer — at least in theory.

That’s the idea behind a consortium of bike and scooter manufacturers coming together to develop and test new safety software that would allow forms of micromobility to communicate with nearby cars. Detroit-based Tome Software spearheaded the initiative in collaboration with firms such as Ford Motor Company, Trek Bicycle and Bosch.

At the core of the effort is a software standard that would allow a wide range of vehicle services to exchange information in real-time so that drivers in big cities and congested areas are more aware of riders out of their line of sight. It could also trigger visible alerts on bicycles when cars get too close. The group announced the news on Wednesday at CES, a large tech conference that’s happening digitally this year. The so-called bicycle-to-vehicle (B2V) technology uses Bluetooth 5, the latest version of Bluetooth communication, to send a signal to nearby vehicles.

Tome says the standard could manifest in a wide range of ways and the group is researching to figure out which implementations are the most viable.

For instance, Ford is testing it out as part of its existing advanced driver-assistance system, something that could be used in addition to sensors on a car to detect and avoid objects.