Mobike, a smart bikesharing platform, is launching in San Diego, according to a recent release. Mobike has begun rolling out its signature silver and orange dockless bikes to key locations throughout the California city, making it Mobike’s fifth U.S. market, and adding San Diego to the company’s more than 200 cities and 14 countries in less than two years.
Using specially designed bikes equipped with GPS and proprietary smart-lock technology, Mobike enables users of its smartphone app to find a nearby bike, reserve and unlock it. After reaching their destination, users manually lock the bike, which automatically makes the bike available to the next rider.
“We are thrilled to bring a convenient, affordable – and most importantly – community-first bikesharing option to San Diego,” said Jason Wong, U.S. GM, Mobike. “We are eager to work with city leaders, planners, residents and commuters to learn how we can best serve the existing infrastructure.”
In addition, Mobike and Qualcomm Technologies have announced that they are working together to deliver LTE IoT connectivity via the bike service. Mobike’s smart bikes feature a smart lock which harnesses the Qualcomm MDM9206 LTE IoT global multimode modem and is designed to support extended battery life, deeper coverage for connectivity in challenging conditions and mobile IoT applications. Additionally, the integrated LTE IoT connectivity and GNSS position-location capability in the modem is engineered to help Mobike customers identify an available bike, quickly unlock the smart lock and assist with real-time management, and provide continuous monitoring of the bike’s status. Since the entire fleet is GPS-enabled, Mobike can get bikes to the locations where they are needed most.
“We are thrilled to have Mobike launch its smart bikesharing platform in the city of San Diego, and in Qualcomm’s very own backyard,” said Serge Willenegger, SVP and GM, 4G/5G and Industrial IoT, Qualcomm Technologies. “In late 2017, Qualcomm Ventures announced an investment in Mobike with the mission to cultivate a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable transportation option across the globe. We welcome Mobike to the city to support the local effort to do so, and look forward to continuing our work together to bring new and innovative IoT applications that take advantage of LTE IoT connectivity, such as smart biking.”
Ken Briodagh is a writer and editor with more than a decade of experience under his belt. He is in love with technology and if he had his druthers would beta test everything from shoe phones to flying cars.
Edited by
Ken Briodagh
