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Skully extends Indiegogo campaign for motorcycle helmet

After raising nearly $2 million in a month with presales of its augmented-reality motorcycle helmet, Skully gives fans another 30 days to decide if they want its pricey protection.

Seth Rosenblatt Former Senior Writer / News
Senior writer Seth Rosenblatt covered Google and security for CNET News, with occasional forays into tech and pop culture. Formerly a CNET Reviews senior editor for software, he has written about nearly every category of software and app available.
Seth Rosenblatt
2 min read

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Skully's augmented reality motorcycle helmet pre-order window has been extended by 30 days. Skully

Motorcycle-riding tech obsessives are getting another 30 days to decide if they want to drop a huge amount of cash to be one of the first to get Skully's high-end, tech-enhanced motorcycle helmet.

San Francisco-based Skully announced on Tuesday afternoon that it is extending its IndieGoGo preorder campaign for its first commercial product -- the AR-1 motorcycle helmet -- until October 9. It's a one-of-a-kind helmet that combines a 180-degree rear-view camera, heads-up display, electro-chromic face shield, Bluetooth, turn-by-turn GPS, voice control and smartphone pairing in a pricey but safety-standard approved full-face package.

The IndieGoGo campaign rocketed past its goal of $250,000 in its first eight minutes on August 11, and by noon that day had nearly tripled that goal with 340 preorders. The Skully AR-1 is the fastest IndieGoGo hardware campaign to reach $1 million.

The current total raised stands at $1.86 million, with an expected ship date in July 2015. The Skully AR-1 costs $1,399 when ordered in advance, with an international price of $1,499. (This converts to about £930/AU$1,627.)

You can also pay $499 now and the remainder -- $949 in the US, $1,049 internationally -- when it's ready to ship. These helmets will ship after all full-price preorders have been delivered.

The helmets have been ordered from 43 countries so far, said Mitchell Weller, who co-founded Skully with his brother Marcus. They've received enough orders from Australia and New Zealand that they've decided to submit the helmet for the AS1698:2006 safety rating there. The helmet is currently certified for the United States' Department of Transportation (DOT) and Economic Community of Europe (ECE) 22.05 safety standards.

The AR-1 runs on Android 4.4 KitKat, and updates will be delivered over the air and for free, Mitchell Weller told CNET in an email.

"Skully will be making ongoing updates to stay current with platforms," he said. He described a diverse group of people interested in the helmet, "from rocket scientists and Tesla engineers to nurses and bartenders to Indycar drivers and retired AMA [American Motorcyclist Association] racers."

Skully plans to show off the helmet at the beginning of October at the International Motorcycle, Scooter, and E-bike Fair in Cologne, Germany. The helmet is available to try on in person this week at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, although it's not available yet for road testing.