One good factor that got here out of the pandemic is that extra folks picked up biking. In the primary three months of 2021, American client spending on bikes and biking equipment elevated by 34 p.c 12 months on 12 months to $8.2 billion. However, the pandemic additionally noticed extra die and undergo accidents whereas biking. According to the National Safety Council, 1,260 cyclists have been killed in 2020, a 16 p.c enhance from 2019.

It’s an issue that Ford thinks expertise can tackle. On Monday, the automaker introduced it’s working with Commsignia, PSS, Ohio State University, T-Mobile and Tome Software to discover how a smartphone app may warn drivers of pedestrians and cyclists they could not see. As somebody sharing the highway with a automobile, you’d set up the corporate’s software program in your telephone. With the assistance of Bluetooth Low Energy, automobiles with Ford’s Sync infotainment system would see you as “beacons.” If the automobile then determines there’s the potential for a crash, it can warn the driving force utilizing audiovisual cues.

According to Ford, its strategy has a couple of benefits. One is that Bluetooth LE is sort of ubiquitous. The expertise has been a part of the Bluetooth protocol since 2009, that means each trendy smartphone has entry to it. If you personal a Ford car, you gained’t must deliver your automobile to a dealership for a {hardware} improve because the Sync system options Bluetooth compatibility. The different benefit of utilizing Bluetooth LE is that your automobile gained’t must see pedestrians and cyclists earlier than it will probably warn you. Ford and T-Mobile are additionally engaged on a model of the app that makes use of 5G as an alternative of Bluetooth LE.

In apply, the corporate’s strategy is paying homage to the COVID publicity notification apps some nations and states deployed at the start of the pandemic. As it’s possible you’ll recall, these additionally used Bluetooth LE. However, regardless of backing from Apple and Google, they have been by no means efficient because of low utilization. In Canada, for example, the federal COVID Alert app was solely downloaded 6.9 million instances and logged 63,117 optimistic checks. Put one other method, nowhere close to sufficient Canadians downloaded the software program to make it an efficient contact tracing device. Ford’s app is prone to expertise among the similar points. 

As an avid bike owner, I can’t inform you how many individuals I’ve seen driving their bikes at evening with out an LED gentle to make themselves seen to site visitors. On the opposite hand, statistics recommend motorists have been driving extra aggressively lately, resulting in the aforementioned enhance in bike owner deaths in addition to car crashes. Any sort of intervention can be welcome, however Ford’s app is not prone to be a significant resolution if it ever involves market. While the Bluetooth LE resolution to COVID had just one uphill climb, apps like Ford’s have two: adoption by cyclists and adoption by automakers.