The Seattle ebike firm Rad Energy Bikes has introduced 4 new ebike fashions, all of which have the crucial distinction of being unlikely to have their batteries all of the sudden burst into flames.
The corporate says its new Protected Defend Batteries—which come normal on all 4 new bikes—have been licensed at UL-2271, an business normal rating for battery security. Which means the batteries on these fashions of Rad Energy’s bikes received’t be practically as prone to the sorts of battery fires which were plaguing low-end ebikes and scooters and have led to accidents and practically 20 deaths within the US.
Rad Energy had 30,000 of its RadWagon 4 ebikes recalled in 2022 as a consequence of misaligned tires, a problem the corporate has apologized for and says it has mounted. There’s been one reported case of a Rad Energy bike catching hearth, however apart from that the corporate hasn’t contributed to the wave of low cost ebike battery fires. We have a tendency to love Rad Energy’s bikes fairly a bit right here at WIRED, so this enhance in battery security is welcome information, particularly due to the added emphasis on the entire “not exploding” factor.
Rad Energy’s new bikes are available in a couple of varieties. There’s its Radster commuter bike, which is available in Highway and Path fashions for various terrains. Each begin at $1,999. The corporate additionally introduced the RadExpand 5 Plus, an $1,899 folding bike, and its new iteration of the cargo-oriented RadWagon 5, which begins at $2,199.
Right here’s another shopper tech information from this week.
Ask Wendy’s Something
Reddit is attempting to make itself friendlier to entrepreneurs. This week, the corporate introduced a brand new suite of instruments, known as Reddit Professional, that might be out there to companies at no cost.
Reddit Professional gives manufacturers quite a lot of methods to have interaction with the platform’s customers, in service of serving to advertisers higher pour themselves into each eyeball remotely attainable. As an example, Reddit will supply “AI-powered insights” that the corporate says will sift by the positioning’s 17 billion posts to seek out related threads and subjects that firms can then use to “be part of or begin conversations” (aka deploying their deeply cringe advertising ways). Which means once you write a remark about, say, Wendy’s, in a thread manner down on a tiny subreddit, the model’s social media crew may have a better time discovering it and spouting off some sassy model banter within the replies.
It’s the most recent transfer in Reddit’s sluggish, controversial quest for profitability (and probably enshittification). Reddit filed to take the corporate public in February, which can allow it to promote inventory to shareholders. The corporate, which has by no means confirmed worthwhile, is raring to make its platform extra interesting to advertisers who can spend cash in its boards. That is possible why Reddit has made strikes like charging an exorbitant sum of money for the instruments builders use to entry the platform’s information, successfully killing third-party apps. This transfer of giving manufacturers and advertisers a better portal into each section of the positioning is one other stab at these ambitions.
Dodge This
There’s a brand new Dodge chargin’ onto the scene. Sure, it’s a Charger, the beefy, grotesquely fuel-inefficient muscle automotive that’s been roaring throughout roads for the higher a part of the previous century. In 2021, Dodge introduced it might ditch its gas-powered Chargers in favor of electrical variants. This week, the primary stage of that rollout has formally begun.
Billed—considerably arguably—as “the world’s first and solely electrical muscle automotive,” the Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack EV is a fully juiced-up road-rage machine that’s certain to be the closest factor you will get to driving a Transformer. It boasts as much as 670 horsepower and has a quoted zero-to-60 time of three.3 seconds. The automotive additionally comes with an array of options meant to make it simpler to mainline high-octane driving adrenaline. There are devoted efficiency modes for rubber-burnin’ excursions like Drag, Monitor, Drift, and Donut modes. One other setting, known as PowerShot, will increase horsepower by 40 hp for 15 seconds. It’s like injecting your automotive with nitrous oxide however conserving it road authorized.
Nikon Takes a Pink Eye
Digital camera producer Nikon introduced this week that it’s scooping up the cinematic digital camera firm Pink. Pink’s skilled digital cameras have a protracted popularity in cinematography circles for pushing the boundaries of what digital camera sensors and optics can do. They’re historically costly, beefy gadgets aimed toward professionals producing cinema-quality content material. In case you watch any big-budget reveals or motion pictures on community tv or the streamers, you’ve certainly seen one thing shot on Pink.
This transfer by Nikon factors to the corporate’s video ambitions. Nikon makes excellent images cameras however has struggled to compete with the likes of Canon in relation to video. Shopping for a premium video-camera firm could definitely give the model a leg up.
Hey Google, U OK?
There’s all the time tons happening at Google. As one of many largest tech companies on this planet, the corporate usually attracts lots of scrutiny and criticism, a lot of it warranted. However Google’s been on a roll currently, with issues stemming from its rush to push out AI merchandise, its current rounds of layoffs, and inner discrimination in opposition to its personal staff. All of this makes for a really chaotic time for the corporate, which raises the final word query: Is Google OK?
This week on WIRED’s Gadget Lab podcast, we speak in regards to the on-line uproar about Google’s Gemini AI going “woke” and all the interior turmoil roiling the large Silicon Valley firm.
