It's crazy to imagine the world we live in today. Until the longest time, what you brought is what you got. But nowadays, with technology scurrying, your smartphone's software is updated almost every 2-3 months. Even the smart TVs of today can update their software over the air. So why should your electric scooter be any different when things are constantly evolving? Ola lent me a long-termer S1 Pro, which was impressive. Still, now, the brand has further enhanced my scooting experience by updating its internal software to Move OS3. No, there aren't any physical changes to the scooter, but it's more of changes made software-wise.
With the new MoveOS 3.0 update, a bunch of features are added to the S1 and S1 Pro. They have been classified under the pillars of Performance, Access and Convenience. Some key features are hyper charging, Bluetooth calling, party mode, riding moods, advanced re-generation, proximity lock/unlock, hill-hold control, etc. Starting with the 7-inch touchscreen, customers can now customise their clusters and the scooter's sound, thanks to 'moods'. It is a fancy word for themes and gets three of them: Bolt, Vintage and Eclipse. Of the three modes, the best has to be the Eclipse mode since it makes the display quite futuristic and hard to read, but the essential information you'd require is clear and visible.
Furthermore, the electric scooter now gets a bluetooth calling feature, which will allow the users to pick up or disconnect a call via the screen or by toggling the switches on the handlebar. One can also access essential documents such as a driving licence through the dash. You will have to upload the documents on the Ola Electric mobile app to do the same. One quirky trick the Ola S1 now offers is 'party mode'. One can enable the party mode by clicking on the 'disco ball' icon on the dash while playing music. It will offer a synchronised light show for any song you play on the scooter.
Those aren't the only additions. Ola has included some intelligent features in the MoveOS 3.0 update, and one such trait is the proximity unlock feature. Once enabled via the Ola Electric app, one can simply walk to their Ola S1 Pro with their smartphone, and the scooter will automatically unlock itself. Now, this is still in the beta phase, so there are some niggles with the proximity unlock feature. Still, nonetheless, it does feel pretty convenient to just sit on the scooter and go without having to fiddle with your password whenever you wish to ride the Ola S1 Pro.
The MoveOS 3.0 also brings forward some performance, range and top-speed updates to the Ola S1. Ola claims that it has brought several performance improvements for its electric scooters with the latest OTA update. These include better acceleration in Hyper and Sport modes, increased top speed in Eco mode, better visibility and increased accuracy when it comes to the vital scooter stats such distance to empty, battery percentage, time to charge, etc. Frankly, these changes are something I really felt were necessary since it has improved ease of living with the scooter quite drastically. Yet another feature added is three different re-gen braking settings that users can choose as per their riding patterns and hill hold control which allows the scooter to stay stationary on slopes for upto 3 seconds to 60 seconds without any throttle or brake input but the timing of the hill hold assist differes depening on your usage and other external factors as well.
Last but not least, there are two updates that I still need to test out, and that is hypercharing and vacation mode. Ola claims that with its hypercharger, one can add up to 50 km of range in just 15 minutes, but as of now the network of hyperchargers in Mumbai are skeletal, but Ola is working on improving that soon. The second feature, vacation mode, enables users to leave the scooter without charging for over a period of up to 200 days while going out of town without having to worry about deep discharge.
The Ola S1 features a 3 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, while the S1 Pro gets a larger 4 kWh unit. They are claimed to offer a riding range of 141 km and 181 km on a single charge, respectively (ARAI certified). Currently, the Ola S1 is priced at Rs 99,999 while the Ola S1 Pro retails at Rs 1.40 lakh, all prices ex-showroom.
