Micromobility subscription firm Dance is fitting more than 1,000 of its e-bikes with IoT Venture GmbH’s suite of anti-theft technology.
Described by Dance’s Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Christian Springub, as “pioneers in the connected bike sector”, IoT Venture has designed a GPS tracking solution now used by more than 100,000 customers.
In Germany, where IoT Venture is based, police statistics show that only 10% of stolen bicycles are returned to their owners. The IT’S MY BIKE GPS tracker increases the recovery rate to 75%.
The tracker is built into the engine compartment, both permanently and invisibly and uses GPS, mobile communications and relevant context information from the data points.
As soon as the bike is moved, the user receives a corresponding message. They can contact the IT’S MY BIKE Bike Hunter team via the app and receive support when reporting the theft to the police.
Also included in the app are three insurance packages, which are significantly cheaper than insurance for non-tracked bikes.
In the event of an accident, the digital emergency assistant feature integrated in the GPS tracker detects when the bike is in a lateral position.
The bike owner is asked to confirm via the app that they are fine, and if there is no response after multiple attempts, the system triggers an emergency call to a professional control centre which runs 24/7.
“Using NB-IoT and LTE-M, the GPS tracker likewise makes it possible to locate the e-bikes in basements or garages, as the radio standards have high building penetration,” Mario Schmitz, Head of Business Development at IoT Venture, told Zag Daily. “In the event of theft, we thus determine the exact location of the e-bike. On average, we recover three out of four bikes.”
Christian Springub, COO and Co-Founder of Dance, told Zag: “With the built-in GPS trackers, our bikes will be even better protected against theft in the future. The support of the Bike Hunter Team from IT’S MY BIKE, which works together with the police to recover the stolen bike, is particularly helpful.”
