In a few hours, Zwift will flip the switch on a swath of RoboPacer changes. Here’s the new schedule, which is planned to go live at 9am PT/12pm ET/4pm UTC:
What’s Changing?
Zwift is rolling out several changes at once:
- New RoboPacers: 4 bots are being added, bringing us to 14 active bots. The first 10 bots are evenly spaced from 0.8 to 2.6 W/kg in 0.2 W/kg increments, while the final 4 bots are spaced a bit further apart. New RoboPacers:
- Cruz (1.2 W/kg)
- Mochi (1.4 W/kg)
- Dani (2.0 W/kg)
- Betty (2.4 W/kg)
- Modified RoboPacers: Taylor is being adjusted from 1.1 to 1.0 W/kg, while Bernie is being adjusted from 1.5 to 1.6 W/kg.
- Watopia Only: RoboPacers will no longer be available on the scheduled “guest world”. They will only be in Watopia.
- Flatter Routes: Since flatter routes make it easier for groups to stay together, RoboPacers will be on these routes:
- Changing Twice a Week: Instead of changing every day or two, routes will stay the same Monday-Thursday, then rotate to a new schedule for Friday-Sunday.
Monday-Thursday, September 21-24
Here’s the schedule for the next four days:
To see the schedule for the coming weeks, visit our RoboPacer Schedule >
What Do You Think?
Do you like the changes Zwift is rolling out today? Will this lead to you riding with RoboPacers more, or less?
Share your feedback below (decision-makers at Zwift are watching)!
I like the look of the changes. I’ll most probably use the bots more often>
Thanks
I hope this is not the “(On top of that, there are other features and changes coming, some of them quite big, which Zwift didn’t mention at all. I can’t talk about those yet, but will of course spill the tea as soon as possible.)” mentioned in the other post 🙂
Definitely not.
@Eric Schlange knowing that people at Zwift value your input – the new party crasher series has been fun, but if Zwift would just add an on-screen tally showing the number of riders in the opposite group that you have passed/held off, it would really take those events to the next level. It’s a neat idea but hard to get too excited when you have almost no information about the opposing group. That seems like a simple programming add and could give this format some staying power.
I agree. I said as much on the notable weekend events. That’s why I switched to D instead of E. A victims tally is needed.
This has exactly nothing to do with robopacers
Boring routes only then. Massive downgrade.
While I agree with this sentiment, the masses only used the flat routes only. With watt lock eliminated the need for unused pacers the change makes sense.
I kinda agree. While it sometimes is nice to have a flat route to ride with a group, I also enjoy riding new routes with a pacer group.
Why not have 50% of the bots run on random routes, and 50% on routes from that list, and every other week switch them around.
I disagree. I like pacers for acquiring sweat drop for consistent specific range workouts such as long recovery or endurance rides (zone 1 & 2) without the inconstancy of up and down hills.
I have found that I often get too far ahead of the pacer on the uphill and sometimes lose them on the downhill if I am not paying attention. Just my opinion.
Totally agree with that.
If zwift just ditched the dynamic pacing (at least while climbing) then it wouldn’t be a problem and people would actually ride with the pacers on the hillier routes.
I totally agree. The new set up for pacer bots will be way to repetitive and boring.
Great news, well done zwift
I do appreciate the smaller jumps between pacers, but I think they should rotate the routes more frequently. That’s a long time if you get a route you’re bored with.
It used to be a week between changes not every couple of days.
I think a 5W/kg robopacer might be popular as a lot more riders are racing at in excess of 4W/kg which is all that would be required to draft behind a 5W pacer. Slightly hilly courses would still be welcome based on the numbers of people that have been choosing those. Swiching the routes more often rather than less often would still be nice to keep. And final thoughts, Zwift is still incredible and thanks and well done to the team for everything that you do. And you Eric ! Big time !
I agree that we could use robo pacers that are a bit faster than Constance. I’ve done 48 rides with Constance so far, and my average power with her is 3.45 W/kg. For me that’s on the zone 2 – zone 3 border.
I am so jealous you call that Z2!
Sure, Lance Pogacar
Remember you can tweak your effort by choosing which you ride. For example, pick a mountainbike if you want a harder training.
Yes totally. Or a Gravel Bike which would be worth upgrading at this point.
When I ride with Constance, I pull her little trailer, and that max avg of 4.2 @James kg translates to 3.9 for me, which puts me in Z2. I actually already do more than enough of that outdoors and have been waiting a long time to join a faster pacer group for 1- to 2-hour rides. Unfortunately, this update doesn’t offer any benefits.
If w/k is such a big issue, there are many less efficient frame/wheel options. Problem solved.
The drops you gain are equal for every robopacer? 1.1kw same as 2.4? Im new to zwift.
Drops depend on calories burned… more or less… so the harder you go, more drops you gain. But it’s in general, regardless of robopacers. the robopacer multiplier is the same at both w/kg
Welcome Mateo!
Read all about Drops here: https://zwiftinsider.com/how-drops-work/
No, with faster robo pacers you get more. With coco I used to get like 1300 drops/min but with Maria it was around 1100 drops/min. Also group size and ride ons matter a lot. I noticed less people with coco and they are probably suffering, I did not get ride ons and when I have a big group with Maria, everyone is fresh and giving ride ons, I got same drops per minute as Coco
Definitely welcome the smaller deviations between the bots. The same route for 4 days is a bit stale. I would think 2 days is a better option. Allowing riders to switch between bots and keep multiplier would be nice. It takes me +/- 15 minutes to warm up, so to ride that with a slower bot and then move up to a faster one after warm up, I lose the multiplier from those 15 minutes.
Shame about limiting the bots to flat routes. Lumpy routes can act like interval training sessions so you get more out of a bot ride.
Not really. The bot is too slow for intervals. I have lost robo pacer many times pushing up an ascent and freewheeling descent. An interval is 2.0-3.0x of my long term pace so with that I always overshoot and loose multiplier..
Interval sessions and bots don’t mix if your goal is effective interval sessions. Bot sessions on hilly routes vary the pace so much that I count them as junk miles.
I don’t like this at all, at least have a few robopacers ride outside of Watopia on routes with a bit of climbing. These routes are downright boring. Only one route goes through Titans Grove, and not one route on the Southern Coast road.
All are reasonable changes, but why are they still using Volcano circuit? It’s way too short, the volcano interior is pretty meh, and there’s no segments on it. Doing an hour on that is ten laps of tedium. And they’re doing it in both directions!
For the badges
This makes a lot of sense as the hills make staying with robos require a bit more focus and take you away from your conversation or video.
I doubt they will be popular but I think there should be some specific climbing robos at most levels, perhaps one yellow, green and blue. Can’t imagine a red climbing robo will get much company.
I think this is a good idea, especially to provide a carrot on the biggest climbs. Ven Top is agonizing solo. AdZ less so because of the hairpins and shorter segments, but I imagine such bots would be popular there. Especially a 3.2 / sub-60 bot 🏔
The new pacers are great, one thing that would be nice is if Zwift would stop some users from absolutely spamming the pacer bots. There are some especially on the higher power pacers like Constance that will just spam rejoin every minute or so for hours at a time, once I saw someone rejoin over 100 times during a session while racking up a huge distance doing 0W. Beyond being a nuisance, it just seems like a disservice to so many others who are actually putting in the time and effort.
What is the possible gain from this?
XP?
Probably wanting to upgrade a frame without it feeling like an achievement.
One RoboPacer-related change that I’d like to see – rather than listing the pacers in ascending power order on the home screen, allow the user to specify which pacers should be shown first. Most of my pacer rides are with Yumi (and occasionally with Coco/Jacques), and it is a little bit annoying to have to scroll through around a dozen other pacers to find the one that I want. (Having only pacers on Watopia (and so only one of each pacer) will help with this, but doesn’t do anything about the underlying issue.)
Is this a major issue? Of course not, but it’s something that would make the user experience better and should be quick/easy to implement.
I haven’t exactly figured it out, but Zwift has been sorting some pacers near the front for me. One thing I know you can do is go in the Companion app and “Plan” a ride with a robo pacer, then it appears higher up and further left in the selection screen. But I think one you do it, it might remove it from the list. Then it’s either sorting recently used pacers first or perhaps I join a pacer, leave, then the one I just left is sorted to the left. So it’s possible none of this really works for what you’re looking for, but maybe it’s a slight improvement.
I like the more incremental nature of the bots since it could be intimidating to jump up to the next one. I wish they’d kept a second version of each bot on another world for variety. It’s nice to have an option to jump to a pacer once finishing a free ride to allow an easy cool down. Now that’s only possible in Watopia.
The argument against it is more bots = fewer riders for each, and would divide further if there were 2 of each bot. Bigger groups are better, but I agree on world options and I don’t see why they can’t add some Makuri or France routes in the mix. It shouldn’t have to be the “guest’ world for the pacer to ride there, seems an arbitrary limitation IMO.
Yeah, like the fact there are more Pacers at different levels now.
Not so keen on only using Watopia though.
The French ones were great routes and the hills were just lumps in reality, not massive climbs which I find harder being old n fat 😉
Would be a good idea to have one from each grade on a more hillier route / world and why not use the Southern Coast, it’s a great rolling road to ride and ok, the jungle is the other end, but you can do just the lower half and head back, or carry on if it’s a stronger Pacer.
But keep it up zwift. 👍👍
So strange they don’t add one faster than Constance but adding many lower speed. I want Big Mig!
Not strange at all, if you look at the popularity of the lower-speed pacers and overall Zwift demographics. It’s about giving average riders more options…
I love the bots. I have been using them since they were beta. My only complaint was the gaps. This is an awesome change. And flatter routes is better as well. Well done Zwift.
Poor decision to have them in Watopia only. Backwards step for sure.
Totally agree
Agree. I was hoping for “Red Rock Loop” for those who want to upgrade gravel bikes and collect drops. Just thought that it is much easier to upgrade a gravel bike on gravel/dirt flat course than on tarmac or elevated routes.
Definitely needs to be France and Makuri routes in the mix. Fine if they want to keep it mostly flat, those maps offer plenty of options.
Hard agree. It’s great to have the variety and choice for those of us who ride pacers day after day.
Where is Dan (2.0 w/kg)? Can’t find him…
Love the new pacers!
Now the just have to implement that one keeps the drop multiplier when teleporting from one robo pacer to the next.
Bot ramp time! Spend 5 minutes with each, teleporting to the next every time you hit the 1.2 multiplier. See how high you can go. Sounds like a workout! But it would be nice if you could keep the multiplier going when teleporting between bots.
I really like the added Bots because there are days I feel better than others and this gives me more options. I will miss riding with pacers in the guest worlds
Quite like the lumpy routes on occasion e.g. Big Foot Hills – breaks it up and means I can either up the effort a little for the inclines or treat the hills like an interval, go off the front and then soft pedal until the bunch picks me up again, rinse and repeat.
A 4.4 or 4.5 W/kg RoboPacer is definitely needed. A lot of riders already ride ahead of Constance. I really hope it doesn’t take months to implement. Thanks, Zwift, for considering this!
Always good to tweak and improve this concept, I RIDE with Robopacers on a regular basis.
More bots is good, but having them all on Watopia only and on just a few flat routes is a dumb decision. It will get repetitive very quickly
I miss the out and back again routes of the old days when I actually had to pay attention to what is happening. Now I can watch a movie and not even have to pay attention. So what good is it now…
Definitely a change in the right direction for my case. I like the mostly flat routes, and adding the Betty bot means I might not have to choose between a hard ride with Coco and a zone 2 chill day with Maria finally! Tempo here I come!
Great to see new bots added but I would really love a 3.5wkg bot between Jacques and Genie.
I second this!
Agreed!
So, no RoboPacer in southern Watopia.
I really welcome Dani to close the big gap between Miguel and Maria !
Two things I’d rather have seen – different weights/heights so they’re more representative of the diverse ridership on Zwift and the pacers shouldn’t be helped by the draft.
Really bummed that they’re becoming Watopia-only – and clearly never on the Alpe! That’s a huge miss.
Disappointed by this change. Would love to see bots on the long climbs, would make for some great sessions. Flat rides are popular because the get rid of the bots change in power with gradients. Whilst i get idea as its where the numbers are but it should be at the top end where the gaps get closer not the bottom end. Its matters quite a lot what your weight id as if less than the bot you w/kg changes much more with a climb than if you weigh more
This is not good. Hypersegmenting the bots while limiting venue variety hurts heavy users. Now I have to ride Watopia over and over and over again and not even the good routes are available. I’d much rather have the current systen: 2 of the same bot across two venues rotated every couple of days. It’s almost as if whoever designed the new system NEVER RISES ZWIFT. My heaven’s, I was in marketing – why does Zwift continually punish heavy users? This better result in group rides being incentivized into riding in other venues or rollier rides.
Also, there goes the convenience of not having to worry about a bot ride outside of Watopia, say in London or France instead, that I could literally join anytime and not be hassled by a time frame limitation of a group ride where a bunch of yahoos are gonna ride off the front and annoy people.
Bot rides were easy and convenient and venue-varied. Now you’ve taken the latter away and made increased boredom.
thanks for screwing things up, Zwift.
Good change. Many of us have been waiting for a 2.0 w/kg bot. Eliminating the non-Watopia bot will help to avoid further dilution of the rider groups.
Having more RPs available at the lower power levels with 0.2 w/kg increments is a welcome addition, it will give a little more variety to those who want to vary what they do on Zwift during a recovery day. However, I’m not happy about restricting all the bots to Watopia routes, and ignoring the other worlds. I really liked when the robopacers were in Makuri Islands. How about Scotland or routes that have a decent amount of rollers?!?
I think the move to flatter courses is a good one. At least for me. As a heavier rider, I rarely found them to be attractive. A group I could follow on the climbs would be too easy on the flats, so I just really never bothered. This will make it easier to find a pacer in line with what I want to achieve on a given day.
No bots in guest worlds BIG loss. At non peak time in Richmond sometimes there’s only 100-200 riders. Most riders are riding with bots. To avoid lonely solos, those happy Richmond bot riders are now herded to Watopia and fewer people will ride in guest worlds. I thought guest worlds were populated with bots to attract Zwifters.
Excellent way to everyone NOT a well-rounded cyclist. Bug I’m sure 99% love flat boring boredom
I’m happy to see more power levels included, as this is something I have wanted for a long time. But just staying in Watopia is a bummer. The RoboPacers were a great way to completing those long routes, for us badge hunters.
I’d like another C pacer, they are usually the busiest bot in the mornings. Why not have a 2.6, 2.8 and 3.0. I’m sure the 2.6 would be the most followed though.
I was bemoaning the other day not being able to warm up with a slower bot, teleport to a faster one for intervals then switch to a slower one to warm down. If they’re all in the same world, that will be possible in a single ride.
Watopia always had all the bots so that was already available if you wanted to do that. This update is actually a downgrade because it removes the option of riding in other worlds.
What happened to the coastal routes? They aren’t flat enough? Most of the routes that are on offer with this new idea are routes that most zwifters have been doing since they started doing The app. That isn’t attractive. It’s not going to compel me to do more Robopacer rides
Praise the old gods and the new for the new bots. The jump between some of them was too much.
Honestly been wanting for 2.0 w/kg robopacer since forever. 1.8 w/kg is too easy and 2.2 w/kg is a lil bit too much
I couldnt agree more. Do you want a day thats half coasting or do you want a full blown workout? Love that they are doing only Watopia too so that the groups will get bigger
As someone who uses the B RoboPacers they have now gone from 4 bots to 2. So this feels more like a downgrade. They should have still kept the alternative ones on but put them on hillier routes. At least that way you had an option.
Love the change in increments. Kudos to Zwift for that. Routes only in Watopia??? This is a non-starter. And the list of selected routes???? Ditto. Maybe the new kids to Zwift will like these changes but anyone who has been here for more than a couple years will likely not.
I like the changes but would like to see more route options and changing more frequently. Plenty of flat routes in France, Makuri, etc., and those maps are awesome.
But why can’t we have hills AND flats? Why can’t we have more bots in Watopia AND keep guest world bots? Not mutually exclusive. Zwift at times seems like they don’t understand what their customers actually want and seem swayed by a small group of influencers. Maybe use surveys or focus groups.