Here’s a first glimpse of Baidu’s smart bike

A couple of weeks ago, Chinese search giant Baidu confirmed that it’s working on a smart bike OS called DuBike. It will come baked into a new generation of bikes that are built with sensors.

Today, Baidu gave its first look at what this kind of smart bike will look like, revealing a model designed by Baidu itself.

While this is a Baidu design, created with a department of Tsinghua University, it’s not a working prototype, a company representative explains to Tech in Asia. Indeed, third-party bike manufacturers will produce bikes built around the DuBike OS, so this is more a guide than an actual product. There’s still no release date for the OS itself or any actual products using it. (Update: Added in the detail about Tsinghua University.)

The smart bike OS is yet another creation of the Baidu Institute of Deep Learning, which is working on several new gadgets and also partnering with BMW to craft semi-autonomous car technology for Chinese streets.

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Here’s the explainer of the DuBike OS that we got earlier this month:

This smart bike OS we are developing is going to be opened up to bike makers in the future. The DuBike system includes sensors on the bike as well as apps in the cloud. [It can] design a riding route or work-out plan for bikers who bike for health according to factors like his body conditions and heart rate. It can also help bikers build a community and crowdsource a riding map.

Here’s a first glimpse of Baidu’s smart bike