Baidu just revealed a lot more about its smart bike, and it looks amazing

We got a little taste of what Baidu’s upcoming smart bike was going to look like last month, but now Baidu has blown open the doors. On the DuBike’s new official site you can watch a video that shows the bike and app in action, browse through a bunch of new design photos, and check out some of the features the bike will offer when it comes out (which Techweb claims could be as early as the end of this year).

As expected, the bike features an app that integrates with sensors on the bike to track all kinds of health metrics. It also will feature route guidance with a very cool system on the handlebars (pictured below) that will give you an indicator of which way you need to turn so that you’re not trying to look at a tiny smartphone screen while you ride. It even has brake lights, and all the onboard electronics are charged by riding it, so you never need to plug it in.

Bike theft is a serious issue in China – I once bought my wife a new bike that was stolen within a week, despite the fact that she had locked it up – but the DuBike has an answer for that too. Using the app you can determine the bike’s real-time location at any time, so if it gets stolen, just give that to police they’ll be able to track down the culprit in no time. (Or track them down yourselves and dispense some street justice! Just kidding, don’t do that. Seriously, don’t.)

And of course, the DuBike system also has some social features that will let you do things like share and rate bike routes, set paths to meet up on with friends, and the like. All in all, this thing looks pretty damn cool. Here’s hoping we get a chance to take it for a ride sometime soon!

(Source: DuBike official site)