The Flying Flea reveals how software-defined experiences could be delivered on a two-wheeler. By Megan Lampinen
The software-defined car (SDV) guarantees an ever-evolving consumer expertise. From security and effectivity to infotainment and luxury, the potential of fixed upgrades and updates opens the door to a brand new mobility paradigm. To this point, each headline house and market functions have focussed on passenger automobiles and business trucking, however SDV is definitely not restricted to those segments.
“SDV as an idea applies to any car,” says Sudhakar Bhagavatula, Chief Data Officer at motorbike producer Royal Enfield. “Passenger autos characterize a closed surroundings—very completely different to what’s discovered on a two-wheeler. Rendering software-defined experiences on two wheels is extra advanced however affords an actual alternative to construct a particular sort of connection between bike, rider, and terrain.”
And that’s precisely what the corporate has completed with the brand new Flying Flea.
A motorbike that grows with you
With greater than 125 years behind it, Royal Enfield is the world’s oldest world motorbike model in steady manufacturing. Its newest mannequin attracts on that wealthy heritage. The unique Flying Flea (formally the Royal Enfield WD/RE) was created in 1941 for the British Warfare Workplace. Light-weight and agile, it was designed to be dropped into excessive threat areas by parachute to assist troopers carry messages.
The identify is now being revived as Royal Enfield’s new electrical car (EV) model, beginning with the FF-C6 electrical motorbike. Pivotally, that is additionally the vary that introduces its imaginative and prescient for linked motorcycling, providing smartphone digital keys, customisable experience modes and over-the-air (OTA) updates. “It is a bike that grows with you,” says Mario Alvisi, Chief Development Officer, EVs, at Royal Enfield.
A lot of the SDV functionality is underpinned by Qualcomm experience. On the coronary heart of the FF-C6 experience expertise is Royal Enfield’s in-house-developed working system, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon QWM2290 system-on-chip. This permits the motorbike to handle all elements of the car and experience expertise via an interactive instrument cluster, securing multi-modal interplay with 4G, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity. “It is a totally linked, totally updatable bike, providing a steady evolution of options OTA,” says Nimish Shrivastava, Senior Director, Product Administration at Qualcomm.
Riders can work together via contact display, voice management, joystick, smartphone, and smartwatch. Integration with the Snapdragon Automotive-to-Cloud platform—on this case serving as bike-to-cloud—permits customers to hook up with their bike, monitor its standing, and alter their preferences remotely. “To render all these experiences, we’ve adopted the software-defined method,” Bhagavatula states. “It’s the identical inspiration and methodology seen with the software-defined automobile.”
From 4 wheels to 2
The inspiration stands out as the similar, however the deployment surroundings on a two-wheeler is extra advanced when it comes to security and safety than that of an enclosed automobile or truck cabin. In some circumstances, these challenges open up new alternatives for software-defined experiences. Situational consciousness is a working example. “You possibly can put cameras across the bike, and so they detect potential hazards exterior of the rider’s peripheral imaginative and prescient,” says Qualcomm’s Nakul Duggal, Group Normal Supervisor of Automotive, Industrial & Embedded IoT, and Cloud Computing.
Actual-time diagnostics, superior navigation, and personalised experience settings are simply the beginning. The Royal Enfield group is especially enthusiastic in regards to the bike’s skill to supply driving teaching for improved effectivity primarily based on noticed driver behaviour and the particular terrain. Whereas not each driver will essentially welcome this suggestions, others might discover it invaluable. “Expertise has lots to supply if you happen to’re open to it,” Duggal tells Automotive World. “You possibly can all the time shut it off if you happen to’re not.”
Royal Enfield is a giant believer in co-creation and took in appreciable suggestions from riders whereas growing the bike and its particular options. “We put a number of effort into speaking with individuals,” Alvisi explains. “The preliminary thought of constructing a software-defined EV got here from these conversations. Individuals didn’t inform us, ‘I need an EV or an SDV,’ however they had been telling us they wished particular traits. We might determine clear developments.”
Above all, the purpose is to have software program options help an in depth rider-bike relationship that matches in with the consumer’s digital way of life. “The know-how enhances the sense of freedom you’ve got on a motorcycle, taking it to the subsequent degree,” he provides. “It’s not an impediment to freedom however relatively means that you can join with the bike in a brand new method. The purpose is to make your life simpler with out the know-how changing into invasive.”
The important thing to offering these freedom-enhancing digital experiences is a microservices structure. With this method, every utility consists of quite a few smaller, loosely coupled and independently deployable providers. “How do you place the correct providers on the machine? What do you’re taking it to the cloud? How do you carry updates on the proper time? All these are extra advanced due to constraints inside the bike, and microservices is the correct method to try this,” Shrivastava claims.
An appreciating asset
A car outlined by software program is one that may evolve over time, and that functionality will quickly turn out to be the ticket to play in any phase. “The entire thought is to make the bike an appreciating asset,” says Qualcomm’s Manmeet Singh, Senior Director of Enterprise Growth.
By way of what that appears like on two-wheels, the long run is huge open. Royal Enfield is presently contemplating providing customers the choice of downloading premium options, doubtlessly at an additional price however not essentially. Down the road there might even be new types of car possession made potential by digital advances. “There shall be various developments right here,” says Alvisi.
As Bhagavatula provides: “What’s essential, particularly within the EV world, isn’t just the launch of the motorbike, however that we will supply new experiences OTA over a time frame afterwards, all completed via the platform.”
Regardless of the promised advantages, Royal Enfield is conscious that not each rider will instantly embrace the transfer in direction of an electrical, software-defined motorbike. In some ways the two-wheeler phase could be very conventional, however the firm is prepared to attend for its shopper base to come back spherical in their very own time. “Over the course of human historical past, at any time when there’s a large change, there are people who resist and others that instantly embrace it,” Alvisi factors out. “It’s the latter that turn out to be the trendsetters, and regularly, if the change is sensible for almost all of individuals, then adoption begins.”
The primary Flying Flea mannequin would be the classic-styled FF-C6, adopted by the scrambler-styled FF-S6. Each are scheduled to reach on the worldwide market by early 2026.
