E-scooter firms develop new technology to improve rider safety
Superdestrian and micromobility firm Navmatic have developed a new ‘Pedestrian Defense’ system for e-scooters to improve rider safety.
The new system detects and stops unsafe behaviors, like riding on the pavement, in real time in order to prevent serious injuries.
The system works through the application of Navmatic’s Super Fusion technology, which combines multiple sources of real-time vehicle dynamics data to yield the most accurate, practical and reliable fleet positioning and vehicle control available.
This is combined with Superdestrian’s existing Vehicle Intelligence (VI) platform, with the systems combining to correct unsafe behaviours such as wrong-way riding, aggressive swerving and repeated hard braking, by slowing or safely stopping the scooter.
The new technology integration also allows Superpedestrian to translate sensor data into other interventions, from direct notifications and incentives for riders, to dashboards for policymakers that show safety trends and illustrate locations prone to unsafe behavior or increased chance of a crash.
Superdestrian believes the new safety technology will resolve the challenges in micromobility that have led many cities to restrict, sanction and even ban shared e-scooters. The company is launching pilot demonstrations of Pedestrian Defense across the country this month.
Assaf Biderman, CEO of Superpedestrian, said: “Superpedestrian has cracked the code to one of this industry’s biggest challenges. Our e-scooter is unique because it has the computing power and sensors that Navmatic’s Super Fusion needs in order to operate in the field. Now, we can scale Pedestrian Defense across our entire fleet and offer riders and cities something no other company has: a real-time solution to aggressive and unlawful riding.
Boaz Mamo, CEO and founder of Navmatic, added: “We’ve spent years at Navmatic developing the most fine-grained sensor fusion and rider behavior detection out there. With Superpedestrian’s high-quality hardware and smart system operation, we can detect how riders behave, make real-time interventions, and give cities actionable insight into the safety of their streets. This is what cities really need to solve the problems associated with e-scooters, and our team is the first and only one to achieve it.
“Only with Superpedestrian have we found the combination of a company that owns a leading sensing technology and that shares our passion to make cities safer.”
At the end of each ride, all riders will receive a Safety Rating that chronicles both unsafe and safe behaviors. This individual Safety Rating is used to deliver customized in-app and SMS safety training. As ride behavior improves, riders receive discounts on their future rides. Chronically unsafe riders are not allowed to ride again.
