Skully: The future of connected motorcycle helmets

We’ve focused our attention on how cars can provide connective services, but they are not the only vehicles for which we need to consider safety and security features. Fortunately, the industry kept all its options open. Skully, a pioneer in implementing hi-tech in the head protection industry, is winning the race with their connected motorcycle helmets.

What Skully has to offer?

Since 2013, the company has been turning heads with the technology they have to offer to motorcycle riders. Like something taken from a comic book movie, their technology offers high awareness, smartphone pairing, and voice control.

Skully Synapse is by far the most interesting feature they offer. To jmprove the safety of riding, the system offers critical information, such as turn-by-turn GPS navigation, sensor data, and a live rearview camera feed unobtrusively within the rider’s line of sight.

The connected motorcycle helmets also have their own operating system. Skully OS allows riders to stay connected to the world. Riders can make phone calls, ask for directions, play music, and communicate with their smartphones, all via voice control.

The navigation system of the connected motorcycle helmets

I’m proud to share the news that in early January, this innovative company, selected Telenav Mobile SDK for their new AR-1 Helmet. The navigation features of the helmet will have, as a foundation, the Telenav Scout SDK. It will enable users to have real-time, turn-by-turn navigation directly in their connected motorcycle helmets.

The real advantage of the software provided by Telenav is connected to the crowd-sourced map, OpenStreetMap. The platform works on principles similar to Wikipedia, where enthusiasts can share knowledge. The system focuses on local knowledge that is driven by the community. Their open data principle makes it easy for developers to build on the information in the map.

Acquiring the Scout SDK from Telenav offers Skully the possibility to not only focus on safety but also to bring new user features that riders have never had access to before. The company’s principles are not to distract the rider but rather to use the connected motorcycle helmets to let riders stay more focused on the task at hand. 

Skully’s decision makes it the newest company to be part of Telenav’s Scout for Developers program. Some of the other attendees include Inrix, Strava, TripAdvisor, and Triposo.

The world’s smartest motorcycle helmet

Even if the finished product won’t be available until July 2015, no motorcycle rider with a taste for tech will be able wait for it to reach the market. Many have already pre-ordered the connected motorcycle helmets. And this is just the first step in a technological revolution.

If we can now offer this kind of information to riders, what will the next step be. It’s important to offer motorcycle drivers ways to improve their safety on the road. It’s also been a highly neglected field, until AR-1.

How the life of the riders will change

Looking forward on the road but knowing where the next car behind you is without turning your head has not been such an easy task for riders – until connected motorcycle helmets appeared.

And Telenav is giving Skully the ability to give their users even more information about navigation. Who knows, maybe in a few years, this will be a standard safety feature when riding a motorcycle.

Philipp Kandal