While no European vacation seems quite complete without the requisite moped ride through some ancient Continental streets (according to movies like Roman Holiday and The Lizze McGuire Movie, at least), the Silicon Valley-based company Mahindra GenZe decided the classic Vespa look needs an upgrade — one that hooks it up to the Internet of Things (IoT), letting the scooter exchange data with AT&T products like Global SIM and the AT&T Control Center.
Introduced on Jan. 4 at CES and created by Mahindra GenZe in collaboration with AT&T, this two-wheeler urban commuting vehicle (otherwise known as the GenZe 2.0) was designed with more of a Vespa than a self-standing hoverboard in mind, giving the moped a streamlined, classic aesthetic. The motorbike operates on a CANBus network, a network that can utilize a number of microcontrollers that can communicate with one another in tandem.
This allows message-based protocols to operate, as well as allows for data transmissions of longer than eight bytes (an example of an internal CANBus transmission would be sending a message to release an airbag if the car "detects" a head-on collision). A cloud-based app keeps tabs on the vehicular data and can alter settings accordingly.
The GenZe is also powered by Lithium-ion batteries — the same type used for electric cars — and can be charged in any standard outlet. Even more attractive to the environmentally-conscious urbanite? The GenZe 2.0's touchscreen lets riders monitor energy consumption and CO2 emissions and offers three different driving modes for the novice driver, the scooter-savvy expert and somewhere in between.
Geared toward city-dwellers, GenZe's CEO, Vish Palekar, hopes that the vehicle will aid in "redefining urban mobility" by "incorporating cutting edge technology, like AT&T's IoT connectivity."
"We're changing how people live, work and get around. People can connect and monitor assets from almost anywhere," said AT&T Senior Vice President of Industrial IoT Solutions Chris Penrose about the utility of the mobile service's system.
"Connecting these amazing two-wheel machines is an example how we are a leader in the connected vehicle technology," he added.
Watch the GenZe 2.0 in action in the video below.
Via: CES 2016
