We need to talk about Rad Power Bikes’ new e-bike batteries
Electric bikes just may be the biggest transportation revolution of our generation, helping millions replace car usage with more affordable, more efficient alternatives. But there’s no denying that concerns have been swirling about the safety of e-bike batteries, even if such fire fears have primarily been overblown by much of the media.
Leading electric bicycle maker Rad Power Bikes has just unveiled its new “Safe Shield Battery” in an effort to mitigate worries over e-bike battery safety. And it’s something we need to talk about.
The whole underlying issue here is based on the fact that e-bike batteries are usually comprised of dozens of smaller, energy-dense lithium-ion battery cells. Those cells are similar – and sometimes identical – to the battery cells used in everything from electric cars to power tool battery packs.
The individual battery cells store lots of energy and are generally quite safe. However, danger can occur when the cells are punctured or short-circuited, with the latter often happening when water makes its way into battery packs over time. Well-made e-bike batteries use several methods to mitigate these risks, and the result is that battery fires are exceedingly rare. Even in e-bikes, which seem to unfairly receive the brunt of lithium-ion battery fire scaremongering, such fires occur in a tiny, tiny fraction of a percent of e-bikes.
To put things into perspective, New York City often gets labeled as the epicenter of e-bike fires, yet New Yorkers are somewhere around 5x more likely to die on the subway than from an e-bike fire.
However rare though, e-bike fires can and do occur in poorly made batteries or in battery packs that have been abused, damaged, or otherwise misused. And that’s exactly what it looks like Rad Power Bikes set out to solve with its new Safe Shield e-bike batteries.
The secret sauce in Rad’s batteries isn’t actually the battery cells themselves. Those are fairly standard cells like you’ll find in many other e-bike batteries. The major difference is how the battery packs are constructed.
They use a method known as potting, which basically encapsulates electronics in a waterproof resin barrier. It’s common in electronics that will live much of their lives outdoors, as it seals the sensitive components from moisture.
Remember that mosquito from Jurassic Park that was encased in tree resin amber? That’s kind of the idea with potted batteries, just with a urethane resin instead of tree sap. The battery pack already uses quality construction methods, but then to top it off, the entire thing is filled with resin that makes it impermeable to water – or intruding fingers, tools, or anything else. It’s forever sealed away from the world (though Rad says it’s still recyclable in their battery recycling program).
But it’s not just any resin, the idea is that it is also thermally insulating, which means that if one battery cell ever did go rouge and start overheating (an incredibly, incredibly rare event in well-made battery cells), the barrier would help protect any nearby cells from joining in and developing what is known as a “thermal runaway” condition that is what ultimately leads to the spread of most battery fires.
We spoke to one of the country’s leading battery experts Luke Workman on our Wheel-E podcast last year, who has often performed forensic evaluations in the aftermath of battery fires. When we asked him if there was anything that could be done to help mitigate the fire risks we were seeing in the e-bike industry, such as the widespread adoption of UL certification, he had a simple answer: “Potting.”
Workman explained that he’s performed post-fire forensic analysis on plenty of UL-certified battery packs, indicating that such certification isn’t a guarantee of safety. “You can pass UL water ingress tests with a bit of strategically placed tape over the battery seams,” he explained at the time. But potting was the truly safest method of building batteries that wasn’t intended to merely pass a certification test, but rather to actually ensure the battery cells were isolated and protected.
At the time, there was just one major company producing potted e-bike batteries, Luna Cycle, but it hasn’t gained significant traction anywhere else in the e-bike industry.
At least not until now.
With Rad Power Bikes adopting potted battery design practices, the entire industry has been put on notice. Until new technologies like fireproof solid-state batteries become commonplace, potted batteries are the single best defense against battery fires. And with one of the largest e-bike retailers in the country hopping aboard the potted train, others are all but sure to follow.
Rad has a history of setting examples that are quickly copied throughout the US e-bike industry. New e-bike models like the RadRunner spurred several copycats and jumpstarted the utility e-bike market. Rad’s expansions into several large brick-and-mortar stores pre-empted a major push by several other US e-bike companies to expand dealer networks with independent bike shops. Rad’s electric trike was quickly followed by several other competitors seeking to undercut its price.
In none of these examples was Rad the first e-bike company to make a major move, but it was the first big e-bike company to do so, and thus helped shift the industry each time. And while there’s no guarantee how the industry will react, especially in a year where e-bike sales have lagged behind the post-pandemic boom, there’s no doubt that a major e-bike maker finally adopting potted battery technology is a sign of where the industry is headed. How long it takes us to get there though, that’s anyone’s guess.
resin pouring image via: Pexels
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
![The ticket bot cometh: cities are ticketing drivers that AI says are bad [update]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/06/volvo-bus-nova-cta-copy.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
In a high-tech move that we can all get behind and isn’t dystopian at all, the City of Barcelona is feeding camera data from its city buses into an advanced AI, but they swear they’re not using the footage to to issue tickets to bad drivers. Yet.
UPDATE 06DEC2025: the ticket bot cometh to Chicago.
Last month, the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) contracted with Hayden AI to equip six of its transit buses with AI-powered license plate readers intended to target illegally parked vehicles in an area bound by North Avenue, Roosevelt Road, Lake Michigan and Ashland Avenue.
As with similar pilots in Barcelona and NYC, the Hayden AI technology captures information from vehicles illegally blocking bus and bike lanes, then submits its “findings” to a human reviewer for confirmation. If the reviewer agrees with the AI, they can issue a fine of $90 for parking in a bus lane, $250 for bike lane obstruction, $50 for parking in expired meters outside of the central business district, and $140 for personal vehicles parked in commercial loading zones.
Despite those hefty fines, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is quick to point out that the goal of the program isn’t to generate revenue.
“Every Chicagoan deserves a transportation system that is safe, reliable, and efficient,” said Mayor Johnson, in a statement. “By keeping bus and bike lanes clear of illegally parked vehicles, the Smart Streets pilot helps us protect our most vulnerable road users while improving the daily commute for riders across the city.”
The official release makes no mention of the fact that Hayden AI’s system generated nearly $21 million in revenue for the city in just a few months, despite the fact that thousands of those ticketed weren’t doing anything wrong.
We wrote about some of these issues back in Jun. You can read that original article, below, and let us know what you think of Chicago’s “non-revenue” claims in the comments.
Barcelona and its Ring Roads Low Emission Zone have earned lots of fans by limiting ICE traffic in the city’s core. The city’s latest idea to promote mass transit is the deployment of an artificial intelligence system developed by Hayden AI for automatic enforcement of reserved lanes and stops to improve bus circulation – but while it seems to be working as intended, it’s raising entirely different questions.
“Bus lanes are designed to help deliver reliable, fast, and convenient public transport service. But private vehicles illegally using bus lanes make this impossible,” explains Laia Bonet, First Deputy Mayor, Area for Urban Planning, Ecological Transition, Urban Services and Housing at the Ajuntament de Barcelona. “We are excited to partner with Hayden AI to learn where these problems occur and how they are impacting our public transport service.”
Currently operating as a pilot program on the city’s H12 and D20 bus lines, the system uses cameras installed on the city’s electric buses to detect vehicles that commit static violations in the bus lanes and stops (read: stopping or parking where you shouldn’t). The Hayden AI system then analyses that data and provides statistical information on what it captures while the bus is driving along on its daily route.
Hayden AI says that, while it photographs and records video sequences and collects contextual information of the violation, its cameras do not record license plates or people and no penalties are being issued to drivers or owners of the vehicles.
So far so good, right? But it’s what happens once the six mont pilot is over that seems like it should be setting off alarm bells.
Big Brother Bus is watching
The footage is manually reviewed by a Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona (TMB) officer, who reportedly reviewed some 2,500 violations identified by AI in May alone. But, while the system isn’t being used to issue violations during the pilot program, it easily could.
And, in fact, it already has … and the AI f@#ked up royally.
AI writes thousands of bad tickets
When AI was given the ability to issue citations in New York City earlier this year, it wrote more than 290,000 tickets (that’s right: two-hundred and ninety thousand) in just three months, generating nearly $21 million in revenue for the city. The was just one problem: thousands of those drivers weren’t doing anything wrong.
What’s more, the fines generated by the AI powered cameras were supposed to be approved only after being verified by a human, but either that didn’t happen, or it did happen and the human operator in question wasn’t paying attention, or (maybe the worst possibility) the violations were mistakes or hallucinations, and the human checker couldn’t tell the difference.
In OpenAI’s tests of its newest o3 and o4-mini reasoning models, the company found the o3 model hallucinated 33% of the time during its PersonQA tests, in which the bot is asked questions about public figures. When asked short fact-based questions in the company’s SimpleQA tests, OpenAI said o3 hallucinated 51% of the time. The o4-mini model fared even worse: It hallucinated 41% of the time during the PersonQA test and 79% of the time in the SimpleQA test, though OpenAI said its worse performance was expected as it is a smaller model designed to be faster. OpenAI’s latest update to ChatGPT, GPT-4.5, hallucinates less than its o3 and o4-mini models. The company said when GPT-4.5 was released in February the model has a hallucination rate of 37.1% for its SimpleQA test.
I don’t know about you guys, but if we had a local traffic cop that got it wrong 33% of the time (at best), I’d be surprised if they kept their job for very long. But AI? AI has a multibillion dollar hype train and armies of undereducated believers talking about singularities and building themselves blonde robots with boobs. And once the AI starts issuing tickets to the AI that’s driving your robotaxi, it can just call its buddy AI the bank to send over your money. No human necessary, at any point, and the economy keeps on humming.
But, like – I’m sure that’s fine. Embrace the future and all that … right?
SOURCES: Hayden AI, via Chicago Sun Times, Forbes, Motorpasión.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
The Japanese agriculture equipment experts Kubota are partnering with Norwegian tech startup Kilter to co-develop, pilot, and promote the new Kilter AX-1 ultra high-precision weeding robot across Europe.
The collaboration will initially target Kubota’s vegetable growing customers in Germany and the Netherlands, specifically farmers growing spinach, salad lettuces, herbs, celeriac, and strawberries who hope to benefit of higher yields and crop quality while cutting the use of chemical pesticides to an absolute minimum.
To accomplish those goals, the Kilter AX-1 uses a patented tech package it calls “Single Drop Technology.” Single Drop Technology combines AI weed recognition and ~6 mm placement accuracy to deliver micro-doses directly to weeds, protecting the crop and minimizing the impact to the surrounding soil.
Getting that 6 mm droplet application wasn’t easy. “You can’t buy a field-ready droplet applicator off the shelf,” Anders Brevik, CEO of Kilter, told AgTechNavigator. “We had to design one that survives years of dust, vibration, temperature swings, and long operating days, while keeping droplet size, timing, and placement consistent. That takes deep agronomy knowledge, a lot of engineering, and thousands of hours of field testing.”
Kilter says growers can reduce herbicide use by up to 95% by adopting the new AX-1, shifting selectivity from chemistry to smart application.
Kubota Europe’s Smart Farming Solutions Division, launched back in 2024, is working with the company’s European dealer network to train up sales staff and integrate the Kilter robot into Kubota’s broader farm solutions portfolio. There’s no word, yet, on pricing or if/when we’ll get the Kilter in North America.
Electrek’s Take
Kubota has been bringing literal tons of electrified and autonomous ag solutions to shows like CES for the past few years, and they’ve made significant waves there. With partnerships that take the sustainability push beyond decarbonization and into the realms of de-chemicalizing (that’s a word) and pro-pollenatoring (another word), they’re making real steps towards a more sustainable future for agriculture.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Kilter, AgTechNavigator.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
![The future of electric farming is taking shape at John Deere [video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/12/john-deere-electric.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Energy independence and cost control are top of mind for farmers, and more companies are rolling out electric equipment that can be charged by solar, wind, or even on-farm biogas. With the debut of its latest next-generation electric tractor at Agritechnica last month, John Deere is signaling that it intends to lead that revolution.
John Deere says the E-Power electric tractor prototypes that it’s been quietly teasing since 2022 will be as quiet as a car, as easy to drive as a golf cart, and require minimal upkeep – and all while providing the same performance as the company’s beloved diesel tractors.
“Our goal with the E-Power tractor is to ensure it performs the same jobs as its diesel counterparts and works with the same implements, while unlocking incremental value,” explains Derek Muller, business manager for battery electric vehicle systems at John Deere. “Through our electric lineup, we’ll look to reduce operational and maintenance costs, deliver powerful and reliable performance, and intuitive operation.”
The latest electric John Deere tractor prototype, recently unveiled at Agritechnica, is equipped with a 100 hp drive motor and two, additional motors. One 130 continuous hp electric motor for the PTO, and a third for the hydraulic pump. They’ll draw power from up to five KREISEL li-ion battery packs, allowing customers significant pricing flexibility based on their ability to determine how much power and run time they need (and are willing to pay for) to get their jobs done.
Electric John Deere tractor
The customization will go well beyond just battery size. Deere plans to offer customers a number of different tractor and equipment options, and keep costs competitive by basing them on a vehicle common architecture.
“John Deere aims to develop a single electric concept that customers can configure to their own needs,” writes Bob Karsten, at Future Farming. “Buyers will be able to choose the number of batteries (up to five, totalling 195 kWh), the axle type (narrow or wide track), and the cab (either an orchard cab or the familiar 5M cab). In essence, buyers select their preferred battery capacity. With the largest battery (195 kWh), the tractor can operate for eight hours. The target is to enable fast charging up to 80% in 30 minutes.”
Deere revealed one version of that upcoming electric tractor (above) at Agritechnica last week, but despite being an early prototype, it’s a fully functional piece that’s already seen duty with some of John Deere’s most trusted customers.
- Daniel, an orchard customer from California, said his experience with the electric tractor led him to believe it could help ease training new operators, “I do think the tractor is much easier for drivers to understand it and to drive it. It would take less time to teach them [operators] how to use it.”
- Tyler, a vineyard customer in California, believes that a new electric tractor could help his operation meet its sustainability goals, “When we look at our carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, we want to try and reduce those as we run our equipment to farm our vineyards, we want to be conscious of the community at large.”
There’s no official word yet on when the new John Deere electric tractor platform will start reaching customers, but Big Green’s recent purchase of battery manufacturer KREISEL and its continued push into more global markets means that it can’t afford to take things slow.
You can check out a quick, virtual walkaround of John Deere’s E-Power electric tractor concept in this (admittedly older) video released around the ACT Expo, and expect more details and possible configurations at the upcoming CON/AGExpo conference in March.
John Deere E-Power configurations
SOURCE | IMAGES: John Deere.
If you’re considering going solar, it’s always a good idea to get quotes from a few installers. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them.
Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment3 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024