More Technology, More Information. But Is More Always Better?
More data doesn't always mean safer cycling. Discover how TeraSilIC's bike radar technology, radar algorithms, and smarter HMI design support rear-approach vehicle detection, reduce distractions, and improve bicycle and eBike safety.
游世安 博士
10/22/20266 分钟阅读
During our participation in CEATEC in Japan, we observed growing interest among brands in bicycle safety and the technologies that can support it.
More manufacturers are exploring ways to help cyclists become aware of surrounding traffic through radar, cameras, connected devices and intelligent warning systems. This is an encouraging development for the industry.
But as safety technology becomes more capable, another challenge deserves attention.
Every new sensor can generate more information. Every new function can introduce another indicator, another notification or another decision for the rider to make. The technology may become more sophisticated, but the riding experience does not necessarily become simpler.
For cyclists, attention is a limited resource. They need to watch the road, anticipate traffic, maintain balance and respond to changing conditions. They should not have to spend unnecessary time looking at a display to understand what their safety system is telling them.
This leads to a question that we believe the industry should consider more carefully:
Everyone is working on adding capabilities. How do we become more effective at taking away unnecessary complexity?
For bicycle safety, the next step may not be displaying more information. It may be making better decisions about what information is actually needed.
1. The Difference Between More Data and Better Information
A radar system can provide valuable information about vehicles approaching from behind. Through signal processing and algorithms, radar measurements can be transformed into structured target information, such as distance and relative speed.
But the amount of information available to a system is not the same as the amount of information a rider needs to see.
Consider the difference between providing a complete set of target measurements and communicating a relevant change in the traffic situation.
The first serves the system. The second serves the rider.
If every available measurement is sent directly to the display without appropriate interpretation and prioritization, the rider may be left to work out which details matter most. The system has collected the data, but it has not necessarily reduced the rider's workload.
A more effective approach is to ensure that the sensing layer provides useful, structured information to the upper-level system. Application developers can then use that information to implement their own decision logic and determine how the result should be communicated.
The objective is not to discard valuable data indiscriminately. It is to avoid making the rider responsible for processing information that the system could handle more efficiently.
2. Subtraction Begins Before the Display
At TeraSilIC, our role is in radar and semiconductor-based sensing technology. We do not design the HMI or determine how a particular bicycle brand should present information on its display.
Our contribution comes earlier in the information chain.
Radar measurements need to be processed into meaningful target information before higher-level applications can use them effectively. Our radar algorithms provide structured information, including target distance and relative speed, to support system developers as they build their application logic and rider-facing functions.
This matters because the way information is prepared upstream affects the work required downstream.
When the upper-level system receives useful target information, developers have a foundation on which to build their own rules for prioritizing targets, managing alerts and deciding what the rider should see.
The HMI team still owns the interface design. The application developer still determines how the product behaves. But the system does not have to treat every raw measurement as something that must eventually appear on the screen.
In this sense, subtraction does not begin with removing icons from a display. It begins with designing an information chain that allows each layer to perform its role efficiently.
The aim is to make information more useful to the system before deciding how much of it the rider needs to see.
3. The HMI Challenge: What Can We Remove?
A small bicycle display creates an obvious physical limitation, but screen size is only part of the problem.
The more fundamental question is how much interpretation we ask of the rider.
Should the rider continuously read distance values? Should several indicators compete for attention? Does every detected target need to trigger the same kind of notification? Should detailed information always remain visible, even when it does not require an immediate response?
These are questions for product developers and HMI designers to answer according to the intended application, operating conditions and user testing.
However, a useful design principle is to examine every piece of information from the rider's perspective.
Priority: Which information is most relevant to the rider, and which details can remain in the background?
Clarity: Can the rider understand the meaning of an indicator quickly, without having to remember a complicated visual language?
Timing: When should a warning appear, change or disappear as the target situation develops?
Consistency: Does the system communicate similar situations in predictable ways?
Distraction: Does the interface encourage riders to look at the display more often than necessary?
Limitations: Does the product communicate its operating boundaries clearly, without encouraging riders to rely on it as a replacement for observing traffic?
The goal is not to make every interface minimal for the sake of appearance. Nor is it to remove information that riders genuinely need.
Effective subtraction means retaining what matters while reducing the effort required to understand it.
4. The Technology Behind a Simpler Experience
A simpler rider experience can require substantial intelligence behind it.
The system must have useful sensing information, a clear understanding of its own operating conditions and well-defined logic for determining how that information should be used.
For example, target distance and relative speed can provide the upper-level system with important context about an approaching vehicle. The application can use these inputs, together with its defined rules, to determine how the target should be represented or whether a warning should be presented.
The display does not necessarily need to show every measurement at all times. Depending on the product's design, the rider may benefit more from a clear, appropriately prioritized indication than from a continuous stream of numbers.
The appropriate solution will vary across products. Different manufacturers may choose different displays, warning methods and riding experiences.
That is precisely why the sensing layer should provide useful information that can support different implementations, rather than dictate a single HMI design.
TeraSilIC focuses on enabling this process through radar algorithms and structured target information. We provide the sensing foundation; the higher-level system and HMI determine how to turn that information into a product experience.
This separation allows technology providers, application developers and bicycle brands to focus on their respective responsibilities while working toward a common objective: helping riders stay aware without adding unnecessary demands on their attention.
5. The Rider Should Not Have to Understand the Technology
The success of a bicycle safety system should not be measured only by how many targets it detects or how much data it can display.
It should also be evaluated by how effectively the system communicates useful information in real riding conditions.
A rider should not need to understand radar signal processing, interpret complicated symbols or repeatedly look down to work out what the system is reporting. The underlying technology should do as much of the necessary work as it reasonably can, while communicating its limitations appropriately.
This does not mean that a radar system can replace observation or eliminate every road risk. Riders must remain attentive to their surroundings, and manufacturers must validate their warning strategies and interface behavior under realistic conditions.
The purpose of the technology is to support rider awareness, not to create another task that competes with riding.
For manufacturers, this requires looking beyond the number of features listed on a product specification sheet. It means asking whether each feature contributes to a clearer and more useful experience, and whether the system can deliver that benefit without requiring unnecessary attention from the rider.
More capabilities may create more possibilities. Better system design determines which of those possibilities are genuinely useful.
Conclusion: The Next Step Is Not Always Adding More
The bicycle safety industry is making progress in sensing, connectivity and intelligent functions. As more brands explore these technologies, HMI will remain an important challenge: how to communicate useful information without overwhelming the rider.
At TeraSilIC, we believe that part of the answer lies in the information architecture behind the interface.
Our role is not to design the display. It is to provide radar-derived target information, including distance and relative speed, so higher-level systems can build their own application logic and rider-facing experiences on a useful sensing foundation.
The broader design principle is simple: do not make the rider process information that the system can handle more effectively.
Adding capabilities expands what a safety system can do. Effective subtraction determines how simply and clearly those capabilities can serve the rider.
The goal is not to give cyclists more to look at. It is to help them spend less time interpreting a display and more time paying attention to the road.
Less to interpret. More attention on the ride.
That is the principle that should guide the next generation of bicycle safety systems.
About TeraSilIC
TeraSilIC develops radar and semiconductor-based sensing technologies for bicycle and micromobility safety applications. Its radar algorithms provide structured target information, including distance and relative speed, to support higher-level system development and rider-focused safety applications.
For business enquiries, contact sales@terasilic.com.
