Owlet’s prototype sits between a moped and a bike and is a hoot to ride
We got to ride a pre-production model of a striking new e-bike/e-moped, the Owlet One, with lots of power in a small package.
We first met Owlet at Electrify Expo in Long Beach, CA, where we only had a couple minutes on its bike. But since the company is headquartered nearby in Los Angeles, they emailed us asking if we’d like a longer test ride, and delivered a bike to us for to spend a few hours on this time.
Just to set the stage for this ride: Owlet is a new brand, preparing to ship its first bike. So to start off, we rode a prototype, not the finished version. This means it may come with different features, and we’re not entirely sure when it will ship, either.
The first thing to notice about the Owlet One is its design, which certainly stands out immediately. The bike is made of aviation-grade aluminum, though is still quite hefty, tipping the scales at 84 lbs (but it felt even heavier in our hands).
On top of Owlet’s striking design, the bike is also somewhat of a unique shape and size. Despite offering a format that looks similar to an e-bike at first glance, it rides more like a small moped. This actually puts its 84lb weight into a different perspective – rather than being heavy for a bike, it can be thought of as light for a moped.
But photographs can’t encapsulate everything about the design of the Owlet, because it has one totally unique feature: an adjustable wheelbase.
This can be done by one person in under a minute, though requires a socket wrench and a small amount of elbow grease.
In practice, I found that the adjustable wheelbase probably won’t come up much for riding purposes. The longest wheelbase (or close to it) was the most comfortable and stable to me, and shorter wheelbases were a bit more of a novelty, especially on this powerful bike which can get a little squirrelly on the shorter settings.
Another issue is that it changes the angle of the kickstand, which means you can’t really use the kickstand outside of a narrow wheelbase range. The final bike will supposedly have a different kickstand design, but this will likely be an issue regardless of how it’s redesigned.
But it was good for making the bike small enough to fit into places you might not normally be able to fit a moped-style bike. Between its narrow handlebars and shrunk down to its smallest 44-inch-long setting, it fit into the back of both a Tesla Model Y and an Audi A3 wagon (both with seats down), but not quite into a Model 3 – which I’ve fit multiple normal-sized bikes into the back of, though with the front wheel removed. Though its hefty weight does mean it can be awkward to lift the bike in there in the first place.
And it’s got more power than you’d expect out of most e-bikes too. With a 750W motor (3000W peak), there’s plenty of get up and go, and plenty to keep you going even as you reach closer to its 30mph top speed. This top speed can be lowered through the bike’s computer, to fit your local regulations.
Speaking of regulations, the bike is officially categorized as a motorized scooter, rather than an actual e-bike, as it doesn’t have pedals. It’s in a similar category to electric kick scooters, so you need to have any class of driver’s license to ride it, though it can be used either on or off public roads (but check your area’s regulations for sidewalk use, helmet requirements, and so on).
The throttle we tested was a thumb throttle, though we would have preferred a twist throttle. The thumb throttle is just too twitchy, and on a bike with such peaky acceleration, it could get jumpy. This was especially true with shorter wheelbase settings. Owlet says there will be an option for a twist throttle when the bike ships, but we’d also like to see the software moderate acceleration on the very low end even with the thumb throttle.
And the bike is fully throttle-driven – there are no pedals, only pegs. Owlet plans to offer an option for pegs attached to the front to allow a different, more laid-back seating position.
I tested the bike with a few accessories I had laying around, but because of the Owlet’s unique design, not all of them would fit (the handlebar cupholder seen in some of my photos doesn’t come with the bike, for example, which has no bottle cage mount). You’ll probably want a backpack if you’re planning to carry things on this bike, rather than saddlebags or the like.
Owlet says the bike’s 1500Wh battery (made with 2170-format cells) can take you around 40-60 miles, and comes with a 350W charger for a ~5 hour charge. Based on our test ride, we think this range is reasonable or perhaps even conservative – but I’m also a pretty lightweight rider at 155lbs, and always remember that e-bike ranges vary widely depending on terrain and rider.
The seat has a very cool look to it and is comfortable to sit on, partially due to integrated seat suspension. The front fork also has 3.5 inches of suspension travel. I’d have liked for both suspensions to be a little looser, but that is again likely due to my relatively light weight.
All of this comes with a caveat: we rode a prototype here, not a final bike. So the bike was missing some final features, some features weren’t working (like the headlight), and so on. Owlet says that specifically the LCD and foot stands will be changed, but we imagine other tweaks are possible (we hope one of the LCD changes makes it easier to read with polarized sunglasses – it was a bit tough, which is true of many, but not all, bike computer screens).
Owlet also has plans for a future bike, the Owlet 2, which is more solidly in the moped category, with a less wild design and higher range and top speed. Owlet shared an early prototype fact sheet with us, but given the One is already a bit of a ways out from delivery, don’t hold your breath for the 2 yet.
In short, the Owlet is a fun, quirky ride with a very design-forward ethos. If you’re looking for a bike that doesn’t look like any other, it could be worth looking into. Though it’s definitely on the unorthodox side and you have to be willing to accept its eccentricities when compared to more conventional two-wheeled devices.
The company is taking $50 refundable deposits for its bike, which it has said it wants to ship around March – but it also says that it’s waiting for a minimum batch quantity of preorders first, and that shipments would take 3-6 months after that, so we imagine March could be optimistic. If you want to get in line, you can reserve one here.
The bike will cost $3,995, though early reservers can get it for $2,995, along with an engraved serial number and a 1 year warranty/service package. Owlet wants to have service locations around LA and possibly one in New York, to begin with. It will distribute the bikes by shipping them directly to customers.
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At CES2025, the impressively built-out John Deere exhibit was all about automation. Autonomous job sites, autonomous farms … but it was this new, battery electric, autonomous lawn mowing robot that stole the show.
The self-driving Deere mower robot was positively dwarfed by the giant farm machinery surrounding it, but it continues to prove that humans will pack bond with anything as more than one burly-looking and grizzled man asked what its name was. (It’s Howard. I’ll fight you.)
For his part, Howard packs a 21.4 kWh battery pack that runs a suite of electric motors that includes a drive motor and three cutting blade motors spread across a 60 inch cutting deck – but it’s not the electric motors that make John Deere’s little robot mower cool, it’s the way it works.
See, instead of using “just” GPS data or “just” repeating a pre-recorded run, Howard can do something in between. The way it was explained to me, you would ride the stand-up mower around the perimeter of the area you wanted to mow, select a pattern, then hop off, fold up the platform, and let it loose. Howard mows just the way you would, leaving you to focus on edging, planting, or (let’s face it) schmoozing with the clients.
It’s exactly the sort of help landscapers are looking for.
But that should come as no surprise, of course. John Deere, perhaps more than most companies, knows its customer. “We’ve been in the turf business for 60 years — it’s a core part of Deere,” says Jahmy Hindman, chief technology officer at John Deere, explaining things beautifully. “The work that’s being done in this industry is incredibly labor intensive … they’re not just doing the mowing work. They’re doing the tree trimming, maintaining flowerbeds and all these other jobs. The mowing is table stakes, though, for them to get the business. It’s the thing they have to do in order to get the higher value work.”
Tim Lewis, lead engineer with the commercial automatous mower, told Lawn & Landscape that the industry in general has a high turnover rate as well, making it difficult to hang to people who know where one job ends and another begins. “There’s a lot of nuances it takes to do these jobs effectively,” he explains, “so “Autonomy can help with that.”
The John Deere autonomous commercial mower (there’s no snazzy alphanumeric, yet) leverages the same camera technology as other Deere autonomous machines, but on a smaller scale (since the machine has a smaller footprint). With two cameras each on the front, left, right, and rear sides of the little guy, he has a 360-degree view of the world and enough AI to lay down a pattern, avoid an obstacle, and shut off if it thinks it’s about to mow down something (read: someone) it shouldn’t.
John Deere will have Howard on display through tomorrow at CES in the LVCC’s West Hall. If you’re in town, be sure to go say hi.
John Deere CES2025
SUOURCE | IMAGES: John Deere; Electrek.
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Tesla has officially unveiled the Model Y “Juniper” refresh, less than a day after uncamouflaged photos of the vehicle leaked online.
The refreshed Model Y, codenamed Juniper, has been expected for some time, and was expected to include many of the improvements of the 2023 Model 3 refresh.
In October, Chinese social media said the refresh was about to enter trial production, and just days later we saw a photo of the refreshed Model Y outside the Shanghai factory. Then last month, we heard that mass production would start in Shanghai in January, so we can expect that very soon as well.
And while Tesla said in 2024 that there’s no Model Y refresh coming “this year”, 2024 is over now, and the refresh is here.
Today, Tesla updated its Chinese website with all the information about the refreshed Model Y, with many of the same improvements as the Model 3 refresh like a quieter cabin, higher efficiency, more performance, ambient lighting and a rear screen.
According to Tesla’s site, the new Model Y can achieve 719km of range (446mi) in Long-range AWD spec with 19-inch wheels, but this is based in CLTC estimates, which are much more lenient than EPA. Previously the highest-range spec had 688km CLTC range, so that’s about a 20-mile improvement.
The 20″ wheels on the long range version will take you 662km, and RWD standard-range batteries will go 593km or 559km on the 19″ and 20″ wheels respectively.
We imagine this could translate to roughly ~350 miles of range on the top-spec Model Y on EPA ratings, but we’ll have to see when the car gets released in the US.
Acceleration has also been improved, with Tesla saying the large-battery AWD Model Y can achieve 0-100km/h (0-62mph) in 4.3 seconds, down from a previous 4.9. The RWD version does the same sprint in 5.9 seconds. Both of these numbers would be slightly shorter for 0-60 times, because of those extra 2mph at the end.
There is no performance version yet – just as with the post-refresh Model 3, which didn’t get a performance spec until later.
The exterior design is just as leaked photos suggested, with the same rear end we saw in leaks in July and the front end that we saw earlier today. Though now we get to see it in higher resolution and better lighting.
The front-end includes a Cybercab/Cybertruck-like “light bar” rather than the more traditional-looking headlights of the Model 3 refresh, and has been narrowed to remove the “duck lip” bump at the front of the hood.
Also on the front end is a new front bumper camera (again, like the Cybertruck, but unlike the Model 3), which should help with parking and also offer an additional point-of-view for Tesla’s Autopilot software. The inclusion of this camera, while it will improve Autopilot accuracy, does lead to questions over whether previously vehicles that don’t have a front bumper camera will be able to achieve the same level of accuracy as refreshed vehicles do.
And the interior design changes are also roughly as expected, though the steering wheel has undergone less radical changes than some had hoped.
Earlier today, photos leaked suggesting that the Model Y would receive a similar “squircle” steering wheel as the Cybertruck, leading to speculation that it might also receive the Cybertruck’s steer-by-wire system. But it turned out that those photos were just a Model 3 with a custom steering wheel.
The actual interior of the Model Y maintains a circular steering wheel, which suggests that it won’t get steer by wire (the steer-by-wire specification isn’t listed on Tesla’s Chinese site for the car).
It does however have photos showing missing steering column stalks, which has been a controversial feature of the Model 3.
However, looking closer at the steering wheel, the turn signal buttons from the Model 3 are not present. It looks like Tesla may have included a vestigial turn signal stalk hiding behind the steering wheel, and just deleted the PRND drive mode stalk.
This is still a controversial change, as changing drive modes through the screen isn’t the most popular feature, but the turn signal deletion was particularly egregious and it’s good to see it back. We wonder if the Model 3 might eventually gain this improvement, or whether this will be different in different regions.
Tesla says the new “acoustic glass” in the Model Y reduces interior noise significantly. The Model 3 also got this improvement, and testing does show a significant improvement in interior noise levels as a result.
The Model Y receives other interior improvements seen on the 3, like a screen for the rear seat. The Cybertruck also includes this screen.
This shot also shows the ambient lighting LED strip across the dash, which can be customized through the vehicle’s UI.
Another rear-end improvement is electric rear seats, operated through a button in the trunk. This button gives easier access to rear storage space, allowing owners to fold the rear seats up or down while loading or unloading cargo.
Tesla’s Chinese website calls these “anti-gravity” seats, but it’s unclear what exactly the improvements might be in this respect. The seats are ventilated.
First deliveries are scheduled for March in China, subject regulatory approval, though Tesla’s configurator says “the specific delivery date will vary depending on the configuration and pick-up location and other reasons.”
Tesla is offering a “Launch series” in China, something that Tesla has done with many of its cars, but hasn’t done before in the US with the Model 3/Y. It includes some unique design elements and “Launch series” badging in various parts of the vehicle.
As for other regions, they will probably have to wait. The Model 3 refresh came out in Europe first, and the US needed to wait months for it. This is particularly likely now given new US tariffs on Chinese-built cars (which are a bad idea).
Electrek’s Take
As I wrote in the Take section of our leaked photos article earlier today, this refresh is needed, because not only has the Model 3 had access to lots of improvements that the Model Y hasn’t gotten for the last year and a half or so, but Tesla is having a challenging time with sales right now.
The company just finished a year where its sales dropped for the first time since 2011 – back when Tesla only sold the low-production Roadster. This happened despite the overall global EV market surging to new heights, even though Tesla, the world’s largest EV maker (just barely), did its part to drag down the EV market by failing to grow apace with the rest.
Part of the reason for this is due to stale models – while the Model Y is Tesla’s best-selling model, it’s starting to seem a little long in the tooth, particularly given the Model 3’s upgrades. So we wondered earlier today whether the Model Y refresh could reignite Tesla’s growth.
But it’s not just about models. After all, Tesla did just finish its first full year of Cybertruck production, which is a new model, but its polarizing nature led to disappointing sales numbers.
That polarization is not helped by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is doing his best to harm the company and say phenomenally stupid things or make ridiculous promises basically every day (or every few minutes). His idiotic behavior is turning away customers, whether he believes it or not.
Maybe the company – not the stock – would be better off if he surrendered his title and let Tesla have a real CEO, so he can go play videogames on twitter all day instead (as he already does).
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