Ather 450 and 340 Technical Discussion

DISPLAY - Incoming call: Does the onboard display indicate the incoming call if the phone is connected? Just incoming call indication would be good (rider should not be allowed to pick the call while he is riding). The intention of this feature is to pick the call by pulling the scooter to the kerb in case of the emergency calls.

I mentioned this orally during test ride a month back, just adding here for documentation. The screen brightness should be auto-adjusted for ambient light. I rode it some what late evening and while passing through some of the densely shaded areas of Indiranagar, the screen brightness was a bit distracting. I understand there is a manual option to adjust it but dong that twice a day just wont’t cut it for me.
Also, if there is an option to increase screen sensitivity to allow use with gloves ON, it’ll be great!

One more point, I noticed that the rear wheel air inlet valve is pointed to towards the drive belt while the front wheel one faces the other way. The rear valve is such that it is directly behind your rear sprocket which would make it difficult to use with the straight rod type air fillers at petrol pumps. Since these are Tubeless tyres, with separate valves, I don’t see any reason why they can’t be positioned towards the right side of vehicle which would solve this very easily.

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Horn:
This isn’t something we’ve come across before, might have been an issue with the vehicle you took the test ride on. Will get it checked on AtherSpace vehicles.

USB Port:
I agree that USB port is not used only while navigating, and can come in handy at times when the phone’s battery is low. We haven’t seen a real need for it yet, but if there is a strong requirement, we can add it to future versions. The vehicles in immediate production will not have it, however.

Display- Incoming Calls:
This is something which we really wanted to add, however, with the current hardware it isn’t possible. To have this feature, it requires a local connection using Bluetooth or Wifi, since neither of those is available today, this feature cannot be enabled.
User’s phone connects to the vehicle via a data connection, which cannot support this feature.

Auto brightness control required an ambient light sensor(ALS), which is an added hardware. We used to have an ALS on early prototypes but took the decision to remove it as we’ve got a workaround for it without adding hardware.

Since the vehicle is connected to the server, it can get data on ambient light based on the time of the day and weather conditions. Since the vehicle is used outdoors, the change in brightness isn’t as dynamic as it is for phones, and hence a well-written algorithm can take care of auto-brightness control. We are working on it and will roll it out one completed. The manual over-ride will always be there.

Screen sensitivity is being worked on, it’s difficult to find a balance where it’s sensitive enough to accept inputs using gloves, and not too sensitive to avoid accidental touches or water droplets.
In any case, the issue is known and we will try to get it to improve over time.

Air valve direction is easy to change if there is an issue. I’m not sure if that’s the intended direction or was it only with the scooter you saw. Will check it with the design team and get back to you on it.

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Good stuff on the brightness control logic! Hope it works as expected.
Regarding the touch sensitivity, there can be a toggle button to enable “Gloves ON” mode (older nokia windows phones like 620, 730 etc had this feature)
Regarding Air valve direction, I had the same thought that it could be that particular vehicle but i checked the 5-6 odd vehicles at the Ather space and they were all the same. I had pointed it out to the store manager also.

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Horn: Please check the intensity with the following two conditions. 1) Intensity (frequency in technical terms) after few seconds 2) Intensity once the brake is applied (say some other electrical load is applied). In both cases, intensity should remain the same.

Connected Display: Yes, either Bluetooth or Wifi connection is needed to connect with the mobile phone. These days this chip cost less than a dollar and it is much needed in the advanced vehicle. If the present model will not have this feature, then it will be a big miss from ‘future’ vehicle. Anyway, my suggestion is to design the next version of PCB with the same PCB size with BT/Wifi chip so that just board can be replaced for the present model for upgrading.

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Checking the feasibility of the toggle for touch sensitivity adjustment with the SW team.

As for the air valve direction, the idea is to keep the air valve away from the vehicle’s disc brakes, which can get hot after braking, and have a risk of burns to the person filling air in the tyres.

Since the discs are placed as FL and RR, the valves are placed as FR and RL.

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For the horn, will do that tests. It shouldn’t happen if the power supply to both peripherals is isolated.

As for the call display feature, have passed on the same input to the dashboard team. Thanks! :slight_smile:

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@iamgyan, spoke to the SW team on the glove-mode feature.

As of now, we cannot increase the sensitivity of the screen, as it is already at the threshold value. It does work with gloves, however not as easily as without them. Here are a few things to keep in mind while using gloves:

  1. Gloves should not have excess padding at the tips, or be loose, this increases the distance between the fingertip and the screen. Well-fitted gloves with normal padding should work.

  2. While tapping, a bigger contact patch with the finger helps the screen read the touch.

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I doubt that an algorithm at the server can help decide the screen brightness. Think of the scenario mentioned earlier: when you pass through a dark patch to well lit on the streets, only a system on board can accurately change brightness.

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I too agree with Vishal’s comment. Think about a scenario of riding the vehicle below the underpass! Ambient Light Sensor is only effective and faster way to control. Ambient light at MG Road is not the same at JP Nagar especially during rainy season.

The major concern we have noticed around the screen brightness is that it is quite bright in dark places. Especially at higher brightness settings, this may be distracting. We are working on simple algorithms to overcome this specific issue, which would be mostly time of the day based.

However, as @pingvishal has rightly pointed out, this would not account for differing street light conditions etc. but we expect that to not be an issue from what we have noticed on the road. We don’t have an Ambient Light Sensor on the vehicle today, but we are considering bringing it back.

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Thanks for the feedback folks. ALS was one of those features that we skipped and with actual user feedback are definitely rethinking.

The internal pressure on bringing back the ALS only increases now :slight_smile:

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Hey Tarun, I wonder if you could add android auto features and Driving mode Support for calls received on our smartphones and if possible custom UI for the dashboard .

Android Auto won’t be a quick update. Driver mode calls are illegal for 2Ws - we continue working with ARAI and other agencies to see if the law changes on this.

@surya.oruganti and @arun can reply best though.

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On side for step part
May be this could be an option
I know clean design is compromised but it’s a choice anyway


Ur thoughts

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I just wan to know, can we drive the bike with limited speed.
Is there any control we can fix and drive (mainly for House wifes and elderly people)

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What will be the rate of battery drain if we leave the vehicle unused for a long time (say one week)?
Is there a vacation mode to protect battery similar to mahindra e2o?

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I test rode the bike early July, and this was my feedback:

  1. Major issue: The bike was extremely and uncomfortably noisy (2 bikes, 2 different riders). Would like to see this addressed before commercial launch. I gave this feedback after the test ride, and the folks there mentioned this is one of the most common feedback they’ve got!
  2. Usability: The front hook did not have a “Full closed loop” so bags could fall out despite being placed on the hook.

Esp useful if I give the bike to my kids (when they come of age)

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