Ather Teases Voice Command Integration Between Scooters, Halo Smart Helmet

Ahead of its annual Ather Community Day event on August 30, Ather Energy has previewed an upcoming natural-language voice command feature for its scooters that is likely to be implemented through the Halo smart helmet. In a teaser on its social media platforms, which leaves little to the imagination, Ather says “If we can talk like scooters, why can’t scooters talk like us?”

The video imagines scooters “talking” to each other using the sounds of horns in traffic, likening this to humans communicating. A visual representation of a switch, toggling between human and bike “speech”, indicates the company allowing people to communicate in either way. 

According to the company, it will be the first to implement voice commands for scooter riders. The exact functionality that this would enable remains unclear, but it’s likely that there will be smartphone synchronisation allowing users to make and receive calls, and respond to various kinds of notifications. Turn-by-turn navigation direction instructions, with the ability for the driver to make route changes via voice command would also be a likely use case scenario. 

The Halo is a full-face helmet with integrated speakers, ambient noise reduction, auto wear detection for power saving, and wireless charging. A rider and pillion can use a helmet-to-helmet walkie-talkie feature to make communication safer and easier. The Ather Rizta family scooter, which was launched at last year's Community Day, includes a smart charger for the helmet. It currently sells for ₹6,999 on Ather’s own website. 

Using its own Halo smart helmet means the company could ensure a consistent user experience to a reasonable extent, even when trying to use voice commands in noisy environments such as heavy traffic. The company also offers Halo Bit, a ₹2,999 clip-on accessory for its half-face helmets, which enables many of the same connectivity features. It is unclear at this point whether the upcoming voice command feature will support both products.

Ather will also be unveiling its new mass-market EL scooter platform, which will underpin its next generation of scooters, at this year’s Community Day event. Along with new cost-efficient scooter models based on this platform, it’s possible that concept bikes, including motorcycles, will also be shown off. Other announcements will relate to updated software and new fast charging options for Ather bike owners, plus possibly a Battery-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering. The theme of this year’s event is “Technology that Works Like Magic”.

The company floated its IPO earlier this year, and is now traded on the BSE and NSE in India. Its shares are now trading at ₹414.15, as against their ₹321 issue price.