Initially, the start-up was still called Inboard Action Sports. Now, however, the company has launched an electric skateboard on the market whose technology can be used not only in skateboards but also in a wide range of areas, from cars to care for the elderly. The integrated and networked electronics of the IoT skateboard find their way through the city and determine the road conditions, are connected to the rider via Bluetooth and are networked with the cloud. The skateboard is therefore just one of many typical IoT use cases, which is why the company has changed its name and is now called Inboard Technology.

As is so often the case, it all started with a small problem: bicycles are large and need to be parked outside buildings. There they easily fall victim to thieves. Theo Cerboneschi, co-founder and now CTO of the company, was looking for a lightweight, portable yet cool ride that he could simply take into the classroom. He experimented with Sakteboards and electric motors, which were actually intended for drones. When the fifth prototype was ready after a year and many people wanted to buy the electric skateboard from him straight away, Ryan Evans, now CEO of Inboard Technologies, sensed a business opportunity. That was the starting signal for the company, which saw the light of day as part of a crowdfunding project on Kickstarter. Today, the company employs 15 people, half of whom are engineers. It then took around 14 months to develop the first working prototype and another 14 months to bring it to series production.

M1: simple, sleek, cool

Now the M1 electric skateboard is ready and can be ordered - and it certainly looks minimalist and cool with its 94 cm length and integrated LED lighting. At first glance, no one will notice that electric motors are driving the wheels. The motor power is 1600 W, the weight 6.5 kg. It is almost 40 km/h fast. At its thickest point, the board is only 2.4 cm high. However, motor controllers available at the time were 4.4 cm high - so they were out of the question. So the engineers developed their own electronics for the controller and battery management with the support of suppliers such as Silicon Labs. Because the company also develops the mechanics, it can optimally coordinate all elements. This also has its price: Inboard Technology charges 1,399 dollars for the M1 on its website.

The rider can control the board very easily using a kind of joystick. The connection between the joystick and the board works wirelessly via Bluetooth. With many boards available until then, the rider was still connected to his board via a leash. Far too old-fashioned for Inboard Technology. The remote control fits around a finger and sits comfortably in the hand. The rider hardly notices it over time.

The board itself can assess the road quality via sensors. If the board is riding downhill and is braked, it can recover 30 to 40 % of the energy and recharge the batteries. Conventional boards only manage 15%.

But the most important thing is that the rider doesn't notice any of this because the M1 looks like a normal skateboard without electric motors - and can be ridden like a normal skateboard even without the help of the motors. If necessary, the batteries can be replaced quickly and easily. Incidentally, one battery charge - which lasts 90 minutes - is enough to cover a distance of 11 to 16 km

This shows that the developers have paid attention to detail. And rightly so, because the result is a board that has never been seen on the market before, a skateboard that looks and rides like a normal board, but at the same time brings the advantages of electric motors into play in the background and almost unnoticed.

The Internet of Things is the key

Ryan Evans considers the reliable and robust connection of the remote control to the skateboard to be one of the most important elements. If the rider has to stop suddenly, the Bluetooth signal must of course not be lost at that moment. Inboard Technology uses the BLE113 Bluetooth module from Silicon Labs in the remote control and on the board. According to Evans, the remote control has never lost its connection, even in difficult environments such as San Francisco. The driver can also call up all data, including the battery charge status, via iPhone.

A look at the sensors also shows just how important a functioning network is. Acceleration sensors and gyroscopes can determine the condition of the road. "The board only drives over a pothole once because it remembers the incident and then warns the driver the next time he passes the spot," said Ryan Evans in an interview with Silicon Labs. "The connection is not only to the board, but also to the cloud, so that the most favorable routes can be found. Our vision is to redefine how to navigate urban environments most effectively."