With VanMoof, a new generation e-bike maker has now gone bankrupt for the first time. A VanMoof bicycle comes with an app that depends on a connection to VanMoof servers. How dependent on the cloud are the bicycles of the Dutch manufacturer?
The postponement of payment has been coming for a while, but now the court has declared the companies of VanMoof bankrupt. The plan, if successful, is to find a new owner for the e-bike company. It can then take over VanMoof’s people, assets and technology, but because the company is bankrupt, it does not have to take over the company’s debts.
It is an important moment for the e-bike market. E-bikes simply look like bicycles with a motor, but under the leadership of VanMoof, a category of e-bikes has emerged that have evolved into computers on two wheels in recent years. And not just any computer, but one that relies in part on the app and VanMoof’s servers to function.
Those servers will remain online for now, says VanMoof, although the company is now bankrupt. “Your bike will continue to function and you can keep cycling, because we aim to keep our app and our servers online and we want to secure our current services for the future.” There is a ‘but’ to that, the company says. “As unforeseen circumstances may arise, we recommend that you make a backup unlock code so that you can unlock your bike via the buttons on your handlebars.”
It’s unclear what VanMoof means by those “unforeseen circumstances.” This probably concerns the situation that there is no buyer for the company. Then there is no one to pay for the servers and the plug is therefore pulled.
Depending on the app, may be more difficult to resell
VanMoof’s statement, with a wording such as ‘your bike will continue to function, because we aim to keep our app and servers online’ already reveals that not all functions of the bike work without VanMoof servers. The most important of these is unlocking the bike, something you have to do every time you want to ride a bike. If you ride a normal bicycle, you think that you unlock the lock with a key that you put in your pocket, but with a VanMoof it works differently. You unlock in three ways, VanMoof explains. Two of them work with the app.
Unlocking can be done in the app itself, through the app without touching the phone by being close and without the app. When registering the bicycle, the smartphone and the e-bike make a Bluetooth connection, in the same way as with wireless earplugs or a smartwatch, but that connection is secured with a key that comes from the server. The app occasionally connects to retrieve that key. Without a server, that key can no longer be retrieved.
VanMoof advises current users to set up a backup code, due to those possible ‘unforeseen circumstances’. You can enter that backup code with a button on the left side of the steering wheel. This is a way of unlocking the bike without a connected smartphone, so it will always work as long as it is set up.
That is of course a solution in the short term, but people will also want to continue to register bicycles in the future. The registration process also requires a connection to VanMoof servers for now. So anyone who resells a bicycle and wants to connect it to a new smartphone will have a problem if servers go offline, because even adjusting the backup code is no longer possible. The term ‘vendor lock-in’ has rarely been more applicable than here, because it is literally about the lock of the bike.
In addition, functions in the app work via the company’s servers and it is unclear to what extent the app will continue to function without a backend. That should be technically possible, but it may be that he always wants a connection to the server to continue functioning. The warning about creating a backup code seems to indicate that. In the event of a bankruptcy or takeover, it is possible to adjust an app so that it works offline. Smartwatch maker Pebble did too.
The bankruptcy and the uncertainty about whether the servers will remain online may result in buyers of e-bikes thinking more about how their bicycle works. In the tech market, we have already seen in various places that dependence on company servers is not always convenient. Gamers will know that some games will no longer work offline, as they are trying to contact servers that are no longer online. Smart home tinkerers have also found that relying on servers to turn lights on or off isn’t always the best idea. The same applies here: that dependence is a risk as a buyer.
VanMoof Key Exporter
For current owners, there are already ways to reduce reliance on VanMoof servers, especially for unlocking the bike. There is a tool, the VanMoof Encryption Key Exporter. It is on GitHub, but the maker now also has created a web app. If you do not want your account information on someone else’s server, you can create your own instance to prevent this. Belgian VanMoof competitor Cowboy has also released an app to store VanMoof keys offline. The app makes it possible to create a key pair for a VanMoof bicycle. With Bikey it is possible to export the key so that it can be used later. The key can be stored locally so that users are not dependent on remote servers.
Bikey from Cowboy
There may be several reasons that Cowboy pays attention to this. Those who look at it cynically may think that Cowboy wants to put himself in the spotlight of VanMoof owners in order to sell more bicycles in the future. Another reason may be that Cowboy wants customers to keep trusting e-bike makers who make their bikes “smart” and rely on servers for functionality. The company says honestly that it made the app in a day during a hackathon, so it was not a huge investment.
Other consequences of bankruptcy
There are many more consequences of the bankruptcy, including for customers who had a bicycle on order or under repair. Buyers may still receive their bicycle, but that depends on the possible buyer. Customers who had a bicycle in repair can come and collect it. Repairs are difficult because VanMoof works with custom parts. Regular bicycle repair shops cannot fix much of VanMoof bicycles. If VanMoof does not exist or only exists in limited form, those parts may be less or no longer in production, making repairs more difficult. Perhaps other companies will try to get those parts in stock to be able to take over repairs. Kwik-Fit already took over repairs, but now no longer has any VanMoof parts in stock.
The most important is of course the battery. An electric bicycle is nothing without a battery, but batteries wear out over the years. If many VanMoof bikes need a new battery in a few years, will they still be there? And if the battery stops working, other functions of the bike that rely on electricity are no longer available.
Braking a VanMoof
Finally
VanMoof was a forerunner in e-bikes. The Dutch company made e-bikes trendy and put a lot of technology into something that is basically a bicycle with an electric motor and battery. It was a poster boy in the Dutch tech sector. What could be more Dutch than bicycles equipped with all kinds of gadgets? Now that the company is out of business, customers are facing the downside.
Reliance on technology makes life easier when it works and keeps working, but makes life much more difficult when it stops working. The bankruptcy will also hopefully reverse the trend that e-bikes require an internet connection for functionality. The mere fact that customers have questions about whether they can continue to use basic functions of their bicycle should be reason enough for other manufacturers to seriously reduce their dependence on the cloud in bicycles for some time to come.
2023-07-18 11:17:15
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