Watch India’s first ‘smart scooter’ Ather S450 getting updated like an iPhone

The future of automobiles is likely to be much more advanced than the current situation. A lot of manufacturers, especially the makers of electric vehicles have started coming up with smart vehicles that can get updates over-the-air (OTA) just like your smartphone. Ather, an Indian electric two-wheeler start-up based out of Bangalore launched India’s first smart electric scooters sometime back. Ather S340 and S450 are currently only available in Bangalore and both the scooters get similar OTA update features like the phones. Here is a video that shows how it is done.

Since the launch in 2018, Ather has pushed a few minor updates for the scooters but this is the first time a major update for the electric scooter has been released in India. This video put up by electEVnow Ak shows how it is done on a scooter. The Ather S450 shown in the video gets a large capacitive touchscreen display that can be used for various things. The screen itself shows a notification for the new software and one can schedule the download of the updates and installation just like smartphones and iPhones. The user can be seen choosing “update now” on the screen. The scooter then asks the user to plug in the charger to start the update. After plugging in the electric charger to the scooter, it asks the owner to turn off the scooter. As soon as the owner turns off the key, the update starts with the message “Do not turn on the key or remove charger while the update is in progress”.

It can be seen that the screen turns off and on multiple times before it starts and says that the updates are installed, turn on key to proceed. As soon the user turns on the key, the display gives the message for the successful update and shows the version of the software too. The smart console can also save the documents like registration details and DL on the screen itself, which can be used to show it to the police during regular checks.

Now coming to the updates, Ather has released various updates for the scooter that will improve the overall experience. It now gives alternate routes on the navigation and real-time range re-tuning that changes the range when it detects hard acceleration. Ather has also changed the ride mode names in the scooter now. The normal mode is now called “Sport mode” and the Eco Mode is now called “Ride mode” in the scooter. On a full charge, the users get 55 km of range on the sports mode and 65 km of range in ride mode. Ather will soon push an update that will increase the maximum range to 75 km. Ather has also released a smartphone application with the update that will display all the information about the scooter and estimated range depending on the riding behaviour.