Peloton Bets Big on Body-Tracking
Uncanny Valley | WIRED
WIRED
4.1 • 572 Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2022
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Peloton has had a turbulent couple of years. After the ups and downs of the pandemic economy came a rash of bad press spurned by a series of tragic product accidents. The resulting stock dips and executive shake-ups put the fitness tech company's future in flux. But now, Peloton is trying something new. Or at least new-ish. The Peloton Guide is a device with a camera that sits on your TV and monitors your workout. (Just don't call it a Kinect.) It's far more modest than Peloton's large, fancy stationary bikes and treadmills, and something Peloton hopes will lure in more subscribers. Still, it's another bet on our continued interest in at-home workouts—a market that may not be as robust as Peloton hoped it was.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED executive editor Brian Barrett joins us for a conversation about Peloton's newest product and the company's future.
Show Notes:
Read Lauren’s story about the new Peloton Guide. Here’s Adrienne So’s review of the Guide.
Recommendations:
Brian recommends the novel Middlemarch by George Eliot. Lauren recommends the Apple TV+ show WeCrashed. Mike recommends the memoir The History of Bones by John Lurie.
Brian Barrett can be found on Twitter @brbarrett. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Lauren. |
| 0:01.0 | Mike. |
| 0:01.6 | Lauren, are you still pelotoning? |
| 0:04.0 | Even the way you ask that. |
| 0:06.6 | And not as much as I did last year, but yes, I am still pelotoning. |
| 0:10.5 | Have the cult leaders called you back in for a meeting? |
| 0:12.4 | Oh, the cult leaders. |
| 0:13.9 | Well, actually, I did meet with Peloton recently, but it was not about the bike. |
| 0:18.5 | I can't wait to hear all about it. |
| 0:20.4 | Well, you're going to. |
| 0:23.4 | Me too. |
| 0:24.3 | Me too. |
| 0:26.5 | Right. |
| 0:34.5 | Hi, everyone. |
| 0:35.5 | Welcome to Gadget Lab. |
| 0:36.5 | I am Michael Collori. I'm a senior editor at Wired. And I Michael Colori. I'm a senior editor at Wired. |
| 0:39.0 | And I'm Lauren Good. I'm a senior writer at Wired. And we are also joined in person this week by Wired's executive editor, Brian Barrett. Brian, welcome back to the show. Yeah, thank you all for having me. And so great to see you in person. |
| 0:50.9 | Yes. You came all the way from Alabama just to talk about Peloton. And I'm getting on a |
| 0:55.2 | plane right before this, getting on another one right after this. So you can go home to your Peloton. |
| 1:00.7 | Well, yeah, I get back and I got a 45-minute power zone endurance class. Well, today we are asking you |
| 1:06.0 | to drop your shoulders and drop your baggage. Inhale the good shit, exhale the bullshit. |
| 1:12.2 | Lauren, you edited this script, didn't you? |
... |
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