It’s an important collaboration considering the number of vulnerable road users, such as cyclists, pedestrians and scooter riders. It’s also timely given the increased interest in bike and scooter ridership since the onset of the pandemic last spring, said Eric Bjorling, brand marketing director at Trek.
“What you’ll see post-COVID is more of an awareness of the shared nature of transportation pathways, whether that’s roads, trails, streets,” Bjorling told Automotive News. “COVID has accelerated and accentuated the need for [B2V].”
Trek, Ford and Tome began working on B2V four years ago, a unique collaboration among a bike company, an automaker and a tech startup. The partners have since worked with others in the industry with similar goals for B2V standards.
“Without that structure, we felt strongly that you would not be able to get [B2V] deployed in production,” said Tome CEO Jake Sigal. “We’ve seen that in auto before with AV safety standards, but we haven’t seen much of that on the consumer side. And unlike automobiles, bicycles and scooters aren’t going to be regulated. There’s always going to be someone that’s going to be riding a vintage, 1979 Schwinn bicycle.”
