Gear News

See.Sense ACE artificial intelligence bike lights smash Kickstarter target

Latest lights from See.Sense achieve more than £135,000 of public funding - and there's still time to pledge

If you’ve ever wanted a set of intelligent bike lights that adapt to your riding style to improve your safety on the road, then sit up and take note of the new ACE system from See.Sense.

The light set is taking the Kickstarter route to launch – and has already well surpassed its £30,000 goal with more than £135,000 of investment from public backers – and boasts a raft of features that potentially makes it one of the smartest sets of lights on the market following a claimed five years of research and development.

The ACE is the latest intelligent bike light

First up is a claimed 125 lumen output for the rear light, and 150 lumens for the front, emitted from almost the entirety of the light body. That’s achieved by COB LED technology, allowing the whole surface of the light to shine at maximum brightness, making it more effective as a daytime running light during the day, as well as being super-bright at night to help draw attention. However, it how the lights deploy that illumination that’s set to be most impressive.

Onboard sensors mean the lights are able to scan as you ride and adapt to your surroundings, which is now done all the more quickly due to a 46 per cent improvement in processing power over See.Sense’s existing Icon+ lights, which were also funded by Kickstarter (check out our review here).

For example, pull out into traffic and the lights will shine and flash more intensely in response to car headlights and junctions. At the same time, the ACE boasts ANT+ connectivity to pair with a Garmin device, so you can customise its functionality right from your head unit.

See.Sense have also been hard at work to develop a new smartphone app that not only allows you to control factors such as brightness and custom flash patterns, but also anonymously collect ride data for town planners to use for cycling infrastructure improvements.

The ACE lights will interact with a new smartphone app, allowing users to control flash patterns and brightness

On top of this, other smart functionality is included, including automatic theft warnings, crash notifications and a repository of See.Sense insights including road quality, collected from its users.

You can pledge a range of investments on Kickstarter that in most cases will save you between 30-40 per cent off the expected retail cost once the lights are ready to ship (that’s currently slated for June 2018). The campaign ends on Saturday November 11.

Website: See.Sense