Visitors at a navigation conference inspect a smarter shared bicycle that comes with a lock compatible with China's home developed BeiDou Satellite Navigation System. (Jiang Xiaowei)
Finding a shared bike will be easier and parking it will become smarter.
A satellite navigation conference was told BeiDou navigation technologies would increasingly be applied by the bike sharing industry.
The 8th China Satellite Navigation Conference, held in Shanghai yesterday, featured the latest development and application on BeiDou Satellite Navigation System (BDS), which is independently developed and operated by China.
"BeiDou's high accuracy location technology will help to solve issues like it being hard to find a bike, illegal parking and bike management," said Ran Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation Office.
"BeiDou will make the connection between human and bike closer and smarter." Ran added Chinese navigation service providers were improving accuracy and reliability with new technologies and also integrating multiple satellite navigation systems.
Beijing BDStar Navigation Technology, one of the chip providers of Ofo and Mobike, said chips used on shared bikes currently had an accuracy of about 3 to 5 meters.
Industry insiders at the conference believe technology can help to lower costs and enable more accurate navigation technologies for shared bikes.
Ofo has signed a strategic partnership with BeiDou Navigation and launched a new smart lock.
Gao Jiayang a PR official with the bike sharing company said bikes with the latest smart locks had been launched in Shanghai and the company was also working to apply BeiDou technology into electronic fencing to curb illegal parking.
Six to eight Beidou satellites will be sent into orbit in the second half of this year, Wang Li, chairman of China Satellite Navigation System Committee, told the conference.
By 2020, the Beidou satellites would form a complete global satellite navigation system, Wang added.
