This question was asked during the last Ather owners forum and the answer from Ather was:
“We are using a “Machine-to-Machine” specific GSM chip. This is the same thing used by different credit card Point of Sale devices as an example. The M2M chips are only on 3G (no 4G) and only offered by Airtel and Vodafone for now. If you look at my credit card machine, it will also be only on 3G”.
3G is pretty good right now for the usecase. You’ll need 4G if you want to stream Netflix on the dash (for example of the data use. Dont try this.). 5G only when we have swarms of Athers working together.
Following is my review comments for the OTA update 2.0.0.514149 released on May 23, 2019. Review is chronological as announced by @subramanian.g
Here you go…
Guide-me-home lights - Here’s a cool new feature. Many cars have it, finally your scooter can boast of it too. The headlamp of your 450 will stay on for 20 secs after the key is turned OFF to help you find a way out of a dimly lit parking spot. This will be enabled by
Good one for those who park the vehicle in portico and walk into the home. Quite useful. However I do not find this useful as I park my Ather on other side of my house and walk where there is enough light. So, having an option to turn on/off in setting is really useful.
Save Work / Home location - Many of you wanted this feature, now you have it. You will be able to access your work/home location right on your dash. Your work/home
Useful again. However, is there an option to save as Home or Work? I saw as ‘Starred places’ in the phone app. Anyway, thanks.
Vehicle alerts on the dashboard - Making safety even tighter. Precautionary notifications and alerts will now be prompted on the dashboard screen to keep your ride safe and secure. If there is an error shown during the ride, stop by, read the pop
May be it is useful. Yet to get any notification yet. Till then I hold my review comment.
Trip meter revamped - Much awaited one for many! voiced as a need by …and several others. In addition to the automatic trip meter which resets itself 7 mins upon key OFF, there are two more trip meters A and B which run simultaneously and
Much needed tool or I should say much ‘missed’ in the first release. Finally it is here. One improvement point - Current Ride → Trip A → Trip B and Reset are quite small. A fatty finger finds it hard or need 2 attempts to enable it. Please consider this aspect for next update.
Displaying the state of charge % on the dashboard - another anticipated one. In addition to the estimated distance left, the home screen and riding screen would also show the % of charge left in the battery.
Thanks.
Screen Brightness - another fix prioritized in this update, thanks the voice of @rajeshkav and others. The minimum brightness level has been further lowered significantly to solve the issue of the lowest brightness setting being already too
Finally a great relief for a night rider. It was a safety hazard earlier. HOWEVER I have following problems
If I set it in Auto brightness mode, it is too bright at night (it does not go to 0%)
If I set it in Manual brightness mode, I need to set twice one during day and other for night as zero brightness (which is good for night) is too low during daylight.
What I suggest is (for current version)
Auto brightness should go to zero% brightness at night.
For future update
brightness control based on ‘time’ of the day. Say after 6:30pm, brightness should go to 0%.
of course we need dark theme
Info about tyre pressure - We have been constantly getting questions regarding tyre pressure numbers. Just with a tap on the info button you’ll be able to see the
Thanks. However it is not so easy to locate this place as it is under General and then need to click “!” ; hard to remember the location of this info unless we use regularly.
We have reorganized the screen for a better user interface. The shut down option will now be more prominent. In addition, the user can enable/disable features such as guide-me-home light and real-time efficiency indicator through the Settings tab
Scroll bar is much needed but missed. Many of us find it hard to locate this setting as these controls are at the bottom of the screen.
Bug Fixes
Charger Fan noise - We have disabled the fan at high state of charge, wherever it seemed unnecessary.
I really doubt about this fix. Fan is still noisy even after attaining 80% or say after 90% charge.
Motor Fan noise - Some of you were experiencing the motor fan noise at low speed, this issue has been taken care of too.
This is fixed, thanks. Now I do not hear fan noise below 12-10Kmph.
Charging connector - Now the charging connector will unlock only when the key is turned ON, even if the home point or cable is powered OFF
I do not think this is fixed. I can still remove the charger connector even when the power is ON or OFF without the key turned ON. Does not work for me.
Image resolution of docs on the dashboard - The documents stored in the dash will now be clearer. Not just that, the images can be zoomed into and out of as well.
Thanks. Yes, it is better. However there is no pinch option. Is PDF accepted? Can we crop the images while uploading? earlier crop was not perfect.
When the app initializes, the home screen will display a loading notification instead of 0% charge and 0 km range which caused some concern amongst users.
This is good change. I liked it. Other than this, I saw only one other change that is Trip A and B are added in the phone app. Is that all? Personally I expected many more changes in the phone app.
The charging connector remains intact until I turn on using the key. This works well. But in my case I needed the previous tech because once I’m back home I put it to charge and when my parents are home they turn off the charger and place the connector back in place.
Now I’ve to get down two floors each time to turn off the charger
It would be good to have an option in the app to unlock or disconnect the connector
Ride statistics post upgrade to the latest version of the App(iOS):
The 2 new trip meters have appeared, but the ride data has seemingly missing from Apr 1st till date. the last entry i see is that for 31st mar.
has anyone seen this issue or is it something only with me?
Again, @Shreyas, communication on features needs to be clear. The last place I would search for this setting on the app would be my profile page. I was clicking at every possible pixel on the maps page trying to figure out how to set this shortcut.
I take back this review comment. There is a way to save Home and Work location that is through Profile->Profile->Then save Home & Work Location in Mobile Phone App, which will reflect in the dash board. Nicely done. If you save only Home address, then that icon alone appears. However it is little tricky to identify where and how to store.
Apart from these two, there are options to save ‘starred’ locations.