True to its motto “People talk about innovation, we make it happen”, Nielsen Innovation assisted Soft Mobility Services in making an intelligent bike system a reality. Thanks to its long experience with the bicycle sector, Nielsen Innovation helped to generate a functional and aesthetic prototype in a record time! Throughout the whole development stage, Nielsen Innovation provided Soft Mobility Services with tested innovation tools. They collaborated closely with SMS’ management in think tanks as well as creativity and design sessions, and carried out patent research together.

In October 2009, Soft Mobility Services presented a totally new bike system at the Bike Show in Paris. It is not merely a user-friendly and comfortable electrically assisted bike but a truly intelligent one. On-board electronics (GPS) aim at following the whole fleet of city bikes and send information on their position to the control center via advanced telecommunication systems (GPRS). Thanks to a structured design approach, Nielsen Innovation's team of top designers and engineers created the identity of the bicycle by choosing the components and functions to be integrated (lock, basket, lights). In less than two months!

What is Soft Mobility Services?

It’s a system able to monitor city bike rentals via on-board electronics. These intelligent bikes are also electrically assisted so as to increase the comfort and the potential number of users.

The major innovation lies in the fact that it is an INTELLIGENT and robust bike. Thus, the intelligence is not placed in the docks, which are mere urban decorations, but integrated into the bike. This makes it a lot cheaper to install. Moreover, on-board electronics make it possible to follow the bike’s location, steer maintenance operations, avoid leaving damaged bikes on the docks, prevent thefts and allocate the bikes to the various stations. As for the maintenance, Soft Mobility Services is going to use redeployed staff from the area to take care of a specific number of docking stations, giving the project a strong social dimension.