Originally Posted by himespau

The 2.5% accuracy isn't great if you're racing and Campagnolo riders like myself won't be supported, but I love the idea for Zwift. A simple direct drive smart trainer with incredibly easy setup with their cards, but still gives people the full smart experience. Comes with cassettes ranging from 8-12 speed so new riders can just use whatever bike they have gathering dust in their garage. You don't even need to calibrate. All for $500.

When they started talking about making their own trainer/smartbike, they were talking about making an all-in-one system like Peloton has so that it would be very easy to onboard new riders who just bought the system and hopped onboard (then they got all fancy in their plans and instead started designing high end things for enthusiasts like themselves). The environment has changed, but this gets them back to their first reason to make a trainer.