If Google offered to sponsor your ride to CES 2018 in Las Vegas, all expenses paid, would you go? Most of us will probably say yes, right? But if the ride is on a bike and will take you 10 days, with your Electron Gen 2 Wheel and Google Assistant to help you out, would you still go for it? Well, apparently rider Max Lippe is going to go 17 hours a day for the next 10 days until he finally reaches CES, in a publicity stunt for both Google and Electron Wheel, as they celebrate their new partnership.
If you’re not familiar with the Electron Wheel, it’s an add-on to your bicycle that you can attach to the front wheel in less than a minute (or so the company claims) to help you bike easier, whether for exercise or for going to work. You get an incline sensor so that when you’re going up a hill, it will assist you and you can customize the level of assistance that you need. But you would still have to do it manually, and so Google is bringing Google Assistant into the mix to make it easier.
However, since there isn’t any mic yet to the wheel, you will still need your smartphone within earshot so it can hear and execute your commands. You can say “Ok Google, start bike ride” to start up the wheel and also start tracking your stats on the app. You can also use voice commands to change the level of assistance, check on the battery level and if you want, it can even read out your stats as you’re riding around.
Lippe has already started his journey from Manhattan to Las Vegas, and he is expected to arrive in time for the second full day of CES on January 10. A van will be trailing him to replace the wheel since it has to be charged of course and one charge will carry him to 50 miles.
VIA: Tech Crunch
