Volkswagen has announced its new Smart eBike, the “world’s safest ebike” thanks to a suite of tech borrowed from automotives, plus smart glasses and a smart helmet.
The Smart eBike features Smart View, a camera and radar system that is the first of its kind on a production electric bike and works as part of a safety ecosystem to plug “specific safety gaps that leave cyclists vulnerable in traffic”.
Peter Jost, CEO of Volkswagen Accessories, says the bike demonstrates how technology that’s established in the automotive industry can be transferred to bicycles.
“By combining this technology with intelligent lighting and connected rider equipment, the eBike shows what modern assistance systems can achieve – enhancing awareness, supporting safer decisions and giving riders greater confidence in everyday traffic,” says Jost.
Volkswagen Smart View
The Smart View system pairs a radar camera built into the bike’s rear mudguard with a high-resolution, colour display integrated in the handlebar.
The radar works like rear-view radar bike lights, monitoring traffic up to 70 metres behind the cyclist and alerting them to approaching vehicles. Meanwhile the camera streams a live video to the handlebar display.
You have the option to switch through a variety of displays: a dashboard that shows data about your cycling, and the bike’s Yamaha motor and battery; a continuous feed of your rearview; or Auto Mode, which switches to the live feed when a vehicle is approaching.
If a vehicle is detected, an orange alert will flash across the camera view. The LED strip lighting along the top tube will also increase in brightness if a vehicle is detected to give drivers “an additional visual cue” as they overtake. These strips double as turn and brake indicators.
Volkswagen says the system is “designed to remove the single greatest blind spot in everyday cycling: knowing what is approaching from behind without turning away from the road ahead”.
“Smart View's radar detection gives riders several seconds of advance warning, often well before a vehicle can be seen or heard, supporting safer decisions when merging past obstacles, positioning for a turn, or simply holding a line in busy traffic,” it adds.
Smart glasses and a smart helmet
Alongside the Smart View camera and radar system, the Smart eBike will come with a set of smart glasses and a smart helmet.
The smart glasses are said to be “a wearable heads-up display”, projecting radar-activated blindspot alerts, turn-by-turn Google Maps navigation and ride radar. The display can be turned on or off with an “intentional eye movement” to the top-right of the lens.
If borrowing from the world of cars wasn’t enough, Volkswagen says the glasses were developed with engineers that worked previously on fighter pilot heads-up display technology.
The final piece in the safety puzzle is the smart helmet. Volkswagen says this extends the electric bike’s radar, lighting and camera tech to the rider.
The helmet is equipped with more than 500-lumen lights, which automatically mirror the bike’s brake and turn signals. It also includes MIPS to reduce rotational impacts and will alert an emergency contact with the rider’s location if a crash is detected.
Haven’t we seen something like this before?
Some readers may have noticed similarities between the Smart eBike and the Mercedes Petronas F1 team electric bikes. That’s because both Volkswagen and the Formula One team made their bikes in collaboration with N+ Bikes.
The bikes draw on N+ Bikes’ innovation and therefore share a similar handlebar display. You can also get a Mercedes Petronas smart helmet with similar features. But the Smart View system and smart glasses are unique to Volkswagen’s ebike.
At Eurobike 2026, Canyon presented its vision for the future of cycling tech. This included a road bike with an integrated computer that uses radar technology and a helmet with a heads-up display and audio cues.
The Smart eBike will be unveiled at IFA Berlin in September, where visitors will be able to take it for a test ride.
