BobbyG

On my ride to work this morning I encountered a young cyclist employing P-Assist to help with the last hill before his school.

Rather than a hub or mid-drive mount, Parental Assist (or P-Assist for short) seems to rely on a unique stem-mount, which allows for P-Assist's integrated active-navigational feature that actually steers your bike for you, rather than merely pointing or announcing directions.

Based on my initial observations, I would venture to guess that the P-Assist unit also incorporates many features of a fitness-tracker, but adds active-fitness features such as buying, preparing and serving meals, and commanding you to go outside and play until dinner's ready.


It is amazing what these newer P-Assist Units will do compared to the P-Assist units of my youth which merely attached themselves to the rear of the seat of my bike and merely aided with take-off assist and the stabilization of my shaky, early rides, before automatically releasing themselves once I was underway (although I may not be remembering or appreciating all their assist features).

Now 80+ years old, (having been manufactured in the 1930s) my old P-Assist units have been retrofitted with a passive safety feature which gives them the ability to text, email and even call to remind me to ride safely, watch out for meshuggenahs behind the wheel and to consider driving when it's raining or snowing in Chicago, which is 1000 miles away from Colorado Springs where I live.

JohnDThompson 

I used to use the C-assist with my bike, but it moved out years ago (not my picture).

BobbyG

Troul 

lol nice

Rootman

I had a similar system way back in the 60's while learning to ride! Only mine worked through the seat. My paternal parental unit (Pop for short) grabbed the seat back and flung me down the sidewalk screaming PEDAL . . PEDAL, da*n it!' . The proved to be a very inefficient and hazardous drive as it lead to my falling dozens of times. I eventual stopped using it and went totally pedal powered after about a week of this.

autonomy

I often transport my kid to daycare on the back of the bike, and whenever we encounter a steep hill, she tries to help by pushing me from behind. It's really cute, but the damn weird part is that it somehow works and makes it easier to pedal.