Every time Taco Carlier, co-founder of VanMoof, asked his friends why they wouldn’t buy one of his city-bikes, he always got the same answer: “It will get stolen anyway”. Now that VanMoof’s smartbike has a solution to the problem, sales have increased tremendously!
Unfortunately, every Dutch citizen is familiar with the phenomenon: Bike theft. Reporting the crime to the police rarely results in a reunion between bike and rightful owner. Consequently, biker-locks are often more expensive than the bike that they’re attached to.
Taco (39) and Ties (38) Carlier discovered that the reasonable fear a bike will get stolen is the main reason people won’t invest in the designer bike they actually want. The brothers decided to get rid of this problem for once and for all. Their solution? The VanMoof SmartBike.
The VanMoof SmartBike was designed with the intention be the smartest thing on wheels. It comes completely key-less, and can be unlocked with the touch of a hand on the bike. It ensures you arrive dry with its smartphone weather notifications. And, best of all, the SmartBike comes with a “Peace of Mind Service: VanMoof promises to return back stolen bikes within two weeks. If not, they will replace it!
A partnership with Vodafone resulted in a smart Internet-of-Things solution: an integrated sim-card that traces a stolen bike in no-time. “With our electric bike, that we brought to the market 2 years ago, we used a different technology that used a lot of electricity,” says Taco. “That’s why we decided to use a different technique for our non-electric bicycles that works on dynamo generated electricity. We developed a chip that we implement at a hidden place, deep in the frame of the bicycle. Because the frame works as an antenna, it can be detected by Vodafone’s mobile towers. That is costing a lot less electricity that our previous GPS tracing system. Two weeks ago, the first SmartBike was stolen. Within a few hours, it was found in Dordrecht.”
How that works? The moment someone disables or breaks the lock of your SmartBike, you receive a notification. In that case, VanMoof will track the bike’s location. Note that you won’t be able to see exactly where your bike is hanging. The reason is that VanMoof doesn’t want you to track down thieves yourself. “We don’t believe it is safe or fair for our riders to have to do that” Taco says. Instead, the company will work with the police to recover your bikes.
Want to calculate how many bikes can get stolen for your new VanMoof SmartBike? You can now place your preorder for a small €1400. Worth it? What do you think?
Resources
AD (2016) Samenwerking Vodafone en VanMoof. De Ondernemer, Algemeen Dagblad.
TechnInsider (2016) This vanmoof smartbike is impossible to steal. TechnInsider. [Online] http://www.techinsider.io/this-vanmoof-smartbike-is-impossible-to-steal-2016-5 [Accessed: 9 october 2016]
VanMoof (2016) Smart Straight. VanMoof Bikes. [Online] https://www.vanmoof.com/en_nl/bikes/smart-straight [Accessed: 9 october 2016]
Vodafone (2016) Vodafone helpt VanMoof met innoveren van hun smartbike. Vodafone zakelijk. [Online] https://www.vodafone.nl/kleinbedrijf/shop/vanmoof/ [Accessed: 9 october 2016]
