Ather 450 and 340 Technical Discussion

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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Kudos to Ather Team for coming up with such a wonderful & eco-friendly bike. Especially the idea of Ather grid, setting up the ecosystem in public for electric vehicles community.

Below are few points / observations, we missed out to inquire at the Indiranagar Showroom:-

  1. SIDE STAND - Although, the side stand has been designed elegantly. The sturdiness of the same seem to be bit fragile. As most of the test bikes were leaning too much towards left side (as if they gonna fall).

  2. CENTRE STAND - Does it have a Center Stand? Looks like I haven’t noticed it while I took the test ride. Since the battery is placed below the foot board, will it be challenge to have one?

  3. SPEED LIMIT TILL FIRST SERVICE/ DIAGNOSE - Like any other conventional scooter, does it need to be ridden within a specified speed limit until its first service/diagnose?

  4. BATTER REPLACEMENT COST - I noticed that too many people refraining from booking the vehicle because of the non-availability of the Battery Replacement cost and other accessories cost details. Giving a fair tentative cost details will definitely help.

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Hi Shreyas,

Brake Lock is an important feature to be added, as there is no centre stand.

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Apart from the fact that it’s an awesome electric scooter. I am a bit disappointed with the 7 inch touch screen experience. What hardware is it packing? ARM v7/v8? Intel Atom? What GPU? Mali/Imagination? Also how much on-chip memory does it contain to store maps? What about RAM? What is the supported resolution? Maps appeared pixelated. To a little extent odo as well if we observe closely.

While OTA updates are fine, I am worried if the underlying hardware is capable. Need more Google map layers such as highlighting traffic condition. I spotted a placeholder above screen, is it for camera/brightness sensor? Currently brightness control is manual.

Is the display unit modular enough for hw upgrade later if made available?

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great explorations @Abhishek. I think the first one can actually work out out with some basic mods. It can actually be a flip pedal which in a normal state will be placed towards the front side and on need it can be flipped to work as an extended pedal for the pillion. Requires some structural thinking though.

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These are the questions I would ask if am buying a tablet or a laptop. I am sure Ather team has though about all these things before taking a decision on hardware.

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My main concern is the battery! As you have mentioned about BMS which is a good engineering work by you, it would also help if you can provide the approximate battery life or the battery exchange costs (approx) so it would help me to decide the expenditure on the scooter itself in the near future!

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With eco mode on scooter speed is limited and is not punchy as it is in normal mode
That itself will solve the issue
But otherwise Ather can implement a specific feature if they want to
Also am thinking geo fencing can be add-on in future

Hi @Harsha, you can shut the vehicle down when you’re not using the vehicle for extended periods through the menu on the dashboard. This will ensure that the battery lasts for a few months (depending on the initial state of charge) before going to total power off. You can wake up the vehicle by just turning the key on.

When the vehicle is not shut down, the battery will last for approx. two weeks after which it will go into the total power off state.

You can wake the vehicle up from total power off by charging it.

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For the 450, we had taken the direction that we wanted to provide a distraction free and clean commute experience. This was important not only because of the product philosophy but also because the touchscreen is the first of its kind in India and providing distraction free safety is important.

Android Auto has a whole host of issues for us which make it unusable. Three of these are:

  • Android Auto is optimized for cars. While it supported navigation, a significant focus was on music, radio, Assistant and the like. That would detract from the vehicle experience. Customization in partnership with Google would be time consuming.
  • The vehicle should function independent of the smartphone.
  • It worked only in a wired mode until very recently and wasn’t something we could depend on for our product.

For these reasons and more, Android Auto is not on our roadmap.
@madugowda73 - We re-evaluate this continuously - for subsequent vehicles and 450 OTAs.

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Thanks. Question was for Ather Team

Thanks for the info @surya.oruganti

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