from Hacker News

Bitlock replaces your bike key with your phone

by mehrdad on 9/30/13, 6:53 PM with 97 comments

• by unsigner on 9/30/13, 8:04 PM

  Cute, but seems like a solution looking for a problem, and finding the wrong one.

  The major problem with bike locks IMHO is their laughable resistance to brute force physical attacks, e.g. $100 hydraulic cutters. I don't think anyone around here bothers with picking the actual lock.

• by vertr07 on 9/30/13, 8:05 PM

  Did these guys think about the bike lock market at all when they created this? Why reinvent the wheel? For bike locks people value security and convenience. This offers neither over standard key locks.

  I'm a cyclist. Why would I want to mess with an electro lock when all I want to do is get on my bike and ride? This seems a symptom of 'an app for everything' syndrome.

• by reneherse on 10/1/13, 12:13 AM

  Interesting to read this juxtaposed with the article on increased smartphone theft in what also happen to be cities with high populations of cyclists.

  In my personal infrastructure and gear, I like redundancies that create soft modes of failure. The more we make the smartphone into a security hub (or a payment hub), the greater the cost & inconvenience of theft, loss, or damage of the device. Spreading these functions between phone, wallet, and keychain is a healthy "division of labor" that spreads failure risk.

  E.G., you can steal my wallet, and you can steal my phone, but I'm still safely biking home from the bar because you didn't steal my keys.

  However, yes please to more convenient bike locks. Just not increasing/concentrating device dependency and risk.

• by grogenaut on 9/30/13, 7:34 PM

  Just what I need, for my phone to be dead at the end of the night and not only can't I call a friend to get a ride home, can't unlock my apartment, and now I can't unlock my bike either.

• by 7952 on 9/30/13, 8:08 PM

  It would be good if this was available as a permanent fixture at bike racks. Because it would be static you could use higher strength heavier materials that would stand up to an angle grinder. The big problem for a lot of cyclists is hauling heavy locks around. A keyless static lock would solve this.

• by codex on 10/1/13, 12:42 AM

  Lose your phone? Phone out of juice? There goes your ride. Someone steal your phone? Now they have your bike. Combo locks are the best locks.

• by rednovember on 10/3/13, 6:58 AM

  Hmm interesting idea, but you are definitely not the first mover, and probably someone else already has a patent on it, when did you file? There has been others doing the same for a while. I have been waiting for someone to properly execute this but everybody that tries ends up showing a video and 3d printed mockups. Just to give you an idea:

  http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/haamlock-a-smarter-bike-lo... http://www.smartbikelock.com/ http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/social-lock-developers-kit...

• by ssalenik on 9/30/13, 8:10 PM

  What sort of locking mechanism will be used? I live in Canada and ride my bike all year round, in the rain, snow, sleet, below freezing temperatures, etc. Sometimes I have to leave my bike outside during the winter. I've had trouble opening my key operated lock before when it froze in the middle of the night... luckily I was able to get it open with rubbing alcohol and chain lube after about 20 minutes.

  I'd be worried that this thing won't handle the weather, especially if its only battery operated (no key).

• by emhart on 10/1/13, 1:12 AM

  I'm wondering if successful attacks on this lock (should it get popular enough to warrant it) will lead to successful attacks on similar technology on homes.

  There is an impressive amount of innovation when it comes to stealing bikes as they are low-risk, decent-value targets compared to cars or houses. In the past, attacks that originated with or were popularized on bike locks have paved the way for attacks on other locks that protected cars & electronics.

• by evanlivingston on 9/30/13, 7:36 PM

  What's the advantage over a traditional lock?

• by jpalomaki on 9/30/13, 8:22 PM

  This could also easily enable a small scale bike sharing scheme (among trusted people). In order to keep track of where each bike is, the phone app could update the position to shared map when the lock is activated.

• by stekoz on 9/30/13, 7:50 PM

  Is lock/unlock going to use some kind of OTP, or would the same communication happen over BT everytime? Just thinking about how easily this could be cracked by malicious people near you and your bike.

• by oldgregg on 9/30/13, 7:30 PM

  I've been waiting for something like this-- with the right implementation it could be a huge success-- but there's lots of room to get it not-quite-right.

• by pimpl on 9/30/13, 7:50 PM

  1. Is it more hackable than classic lock? 2. What if my battery dies? No biking for me then? :D

• by 1945 on 9/30/13, 11:58 PM

  Just don't forget to charge your phone or you'll be walking home..

• by dvdhsu on 9/30/13, 8:06 PM

  I've thought about this problem a lot, and was thinking about building something similar. This idea is essentially Lockitron, except it's more mobile (both w.r.t the door/bike, and to w.r.t. its physical location). That mucks with two things: a) the lock isn't attached to the bike, like a Lockitron is attached to its door, and b) the lock doesn't have 24/7 data access, unlike most Lockitrons.

  a) makes it far less convenient to unlock. Sure, the lock might unlock itself when I'm near it, but then what happens? Does the lock just fall to the ground? Do I still have to remove the lock from my bike? If so, how is this better than a combination lock?

  b) makes it impossible to unlock remotely. Sure, it's great that I can tell my friends the exact location of my bike, but what's the purpose of that if I can't unlock it for them from afar? They still need my phone (effectively physical presence) before they can unlock and use my bike. If I had a combination lock, I could just tell them my passcode and they would be off. Why not just a combination lock?

  These two problems make it unappetizing for customers. There seem to be a few main reasons why you have a Lockitron: 1) to go through the door without fishing your keys out or fudging with the lock, 2) so you can let other people in when you're not there, and 3) to know when people entered your house. In fact, these are pretty much the exact reasons Lockitron touts on its website: https://lockitron.com/preorder.

  If a) and b) are true, most of the above three points have been not been addressed. 1) is a direct result of assumption a), and 2) and 3) are direct results of assumption b).

  These problems aren't insurmountable, though. For a), some locks are physically attached to the bike. Here's an example of one: http://lovelybike.blogspot.com/2011/02/is-wheel-lock-useful-.... That way, when you walk up to the bike, it unlocks itself, and when you walk away, it locks itself. There's no need for any physical interaction between you and the lock. For b), you could include a cellular modem [1], which would allow you to remotely unlock your bike. Even more important, however, would be the added benefit of being able to track your bike if it were to be stolen (since with a "cafe lock" like the one I linked above, somebody could very well just carry it off).

  1. The problem is trying to find a suitable data plan. The ideal one would be pay per kilobyte, with the SIM lasting forever. Since unlock and location requests take up very little bandwidth, you could pay a small amount, like $10, for a few megabytes. That should be enough for quite a few requests.

• by dictum on 9/30/13, 11:27 PM

  And now they will steal your bike and your bike lock.

• by highace on 9/30/13, 8:00 PM

  Could the screenshot on that iPhone look any more imposed?

• by slater on 9/30/13, 7:32 PM

  Is there anything more to the site than a sign-up form? :(