Ride With Bots: Company on Every eRoute
Add up to 30 bots to any eRoute. They pace you, draft with you, chat in the 3D world, and answer when you talk to them.
Some days there is nobody else on the road. Bots fix that. Turn them on before any eRoute and up to 30 riders roll out with you: they set a pace, pass you and get passed, give you a wheel to sit on, and talk to you along the way. They are simulated riders that only you see.
Turning Bots On
Open an eRoute and tap Next. On the ride setup screen, switch on Ride with bots. You start with 4 bots, and the summary next to the switch shows what you have picked. Tap it to change the number of bots (1 to 30), their pace, their style and how mixed they are. Ride setup remembers your choices for next time.
Pace, Style and Mix
Pace is a power zone, worked out from your own FTP and weight, so the bots ride at a pace that means something for you. Pick one zone from Z1 to Z4, or All to share the bots out across all four so there is someone to ride with at every pace. The setup screen shows the watts your chosen zone means for you, and every bot's name tag shows its zone.
Style decides how they ride. Pacers each hold one steady power inside their zone, so they slow on climbs and speed up on descents the way you would at that power. Racers ride like real riders, with surges and harder climbing, so the group splits up and comes back together.
Mix sets how far apart the bots are. Together keeps them within a few watts of each other, Mixed has some a little stronger and some a little easier, and Spread out ranges from well under to well over the target.
Riders With Personalities
Each bot takes on a Cave Crew personality: sprinters, climbers, steady diesels, attackers and social riders. They start just up the road and chat with you in the 3D world, in their own voice. A climber gets excited when the road tilts up, a sprinter warns you about the finish, and a social rider just wants to talk.
They only speak when they are close enough for you to read, from beside you to just up the road. They react when you pass them or they pass you, at the start of climbs and descents, when you sit on their wheel for a while, when you put out a big effort, when it starts raining or gets dark, at halfway and in the final stretch, and on every lap of a loop. In quiet moments they make small talk and banter with each other. There are about 900 written lines, a line does not repeat until its whole set has been used, and your device remembers what you heard recently so a new ride opens with fresh lines.
They Back Up Their Talk
When an attacker says an attack is coming, it really goes: it surges up the road, and a while later it runs out of steam and drifts back. Catch it before then and it will tell you about it. On a route with a finish line, someone calls the sprint near the end, the sprinters kick for the line, and a bot that beats you there celebrates.
Talk Back
Use the chat in the 3D world and the bots answer. Some quick chats make them act: Ease up slows the bots just ahead of you, On the front brings a bot up to pull for you for a minute, Dropping back has the bots up the road wait and ride with you, and Let's go! can set off an attacker. Type a message and they reply to what you talk about, from coffee to tired legs. Type race and a bot will count down and go. Mention a bot by name and that bot answers.
Tap a bot in the 3D world to ring a bell at it, and it rings back. Keep ringing the same bot and it gets cheekier.
Drafting and Call Bots
On a plain route ride, bots give you a draft just like real riders, so sitting on a wheel saves you watts. Drafting stays off when you have attached a workout, so your workout is not changed by the bots around you.
Dropped them, or rode away from them? Open the player menu and choose Call bots to bring the whole group back to you.
Real Riders Come First
Bots never take a real rider's place. Your 3D world shows the 30 riders nearest to you, and real riders fill those places first: bots only take the places that are left. On a busy road the bots step aside and come back as it clears. Bots also live only on your device. Other riders never see them.
Give It a Try
Pick an eRoute, tap Next, switch on Ride with bots and roll out. If your ride is interrupted and you resume it, your bots come back where you left them.