A major first, it enables cyclists to chat with their bikes, whether to get practical information about their route or advice on how to improve their performance.

The e-bike, called the Urtopia Fusion, was designed by the industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger. Made almost entirely from carbon fibre, it is the first bike to integrate ChatGPT directly.

The various models currently offered for sale by Urtopia are already ultra-connected. These bikes have access to data from platforms such as Apple Health and Strava, for live monitoring of the user’s performance.

In fact, the integration of health data from the Apple Watch makes it possible to monitor changes in the cyclist’s heart rate and automatically adjust the power delivered by the e-bike, for less effort and greater comfort.

And with Strava, cyclists can easily share their latest rides on social networks.

But the integration of ChatGPT boosts these possibilities. From a practical point of view, AI enables the rider to communicate with the bike via a synthetic voice that reads out ChatGPT’s responses, for real-time assistance based on individual needs.

Here, the famed AI chatbot can help discover nearby places of interest, as well as define routes to a specific location.

Using health data and route history, cyclists can also ask the chatbot to create a personalised training programme. They can even get answers about the maintenance and repair of their bike.

The Hong-Kong-based manufacturer previously made the news this year by unveiling Chord, a model equipped with a fingerprint reader for securely unlocking the bike’s onboard system. This will also feature on the Fusion.