Closing the Compliance Gap
As recent experiences in cities as diverse as Milan, Seattle and Paris have shown, shared e-scooter operators do not always deliver on the promises they make to cities. Safety features, fleet size, parking practices, equity service, and geofence enforcement are just some of the areas where operators often fail to comply. Closing this chasm between promises and performance is vital to the success of London’s upcoming scooter program.
By Haya Verwoord Douidri
Of all the performance factors that will make London scooter sharing a success, none is more important than keeping riders and other street users safe. Beyond sound vehicle mechanics, integrated onboard technology and instant geofence enforcement are the foundations of a safe scooter program.
Superpedestrian’s LINK Scooters have been engineered and at standards on-par with automotive validation, and they’re equipped with two key features that will drive compliance with London’s stringent rider pedestrian and safety standards:
1. The VIS (Vehicle Intelligence System) that protects our riders
Of all the factors that contribute to fatalities and injuries — road design, rider behavior, weather — the design of the scooter itself is the most important. Scooter design also happens to be the factor that operators are most able to control, and therefore is an operator’s responsibility to get right.
The challenge with electric vehicles is that unlike internal combustion engines, all the parts that make them work are enclosed in a casing. That makes it impossible to visually diagnose an issue and know whether an e-scooter is safe to ride. That is, impossible unless your embedded system can run its own safety check, self-diagnose issues, and report any potential problems it detects.
With 20+ patents, Superpedestrian’s LINK scooter is technologically advanced and thoroughly engineered. To absolutely ensure the safety of our vehicle, our engineers designed the entire scooter, from the powertrain to the electronics to the embedded computing software. This in-depth engineering affords a level of control over the vehicle’s braking, acceleration, battery, and other critical safety systems that should not be unique in the shared micromobility industry — such considerations and controls should be required
At the heart of Superpedestrian’s LINK scooter is the patented Vehicle Intelligence System (VIS). VIS is a collection of sensors, firmware, and onboard diagnostic technology that monitors the mechanical and electrical status of the entire vehicle in real-time, and autonomously resolves a majority of potential issues (Figure 1).
The VIS includes five onboard microprocessors and over 75 sensors that work together to predict, detect, and avert more than 100 common electronic and mechanical issues that could cause other scooters to fail. When a LINK scooter detects a potential issue, such as a battery on the verge of overheating, it takes immediate action to protect both the rider and the scooter — in this case by automatically attenuating motor power to cool the battery. This autonomous technology helps keep riders safe and scooters operational.
2. On-board maps and real-time geofencing that protects vulnerable street users
Pedestrians are our streets’ most vulnerable users, and they already have too little space on our roads. To date, the micromobility industry has “answered” this concern with a combination of somewhat-effective products and over-the-top or unsustainable promises. Of all the pedestrian-friendly assurances companies make to cities, the geofence is the most heralded. Though often treated as a panacea by both the private and public sectors, the fact is that current geofences just don’t work as advertised. As we’ve mentioned before, there are two main reasons why companies have fallen short of fulfilling their geofencing promises: 1) The inherent inaccuracy of GPS, and 2) the time-consuming cellular communication lag between the scooter and the cloud.
Rather than relying on a cellular connection, LINK vehicles use on-board maps that are installed in each scooter. Onboard mapping allows us to enforce geofences in under 1 second. We design these custom digital base maps in concert with city partners to capture corners, alleyways and other granular features of the urban landscape (Figure 2).
Before every launch, we work closely with local city planners to capture the potential conflict points in a city’s built environment — eg. a pedestrian plaza adjacent to a bike path. Our team collects data block-by-block, adjusting for GPS inaccuracies and accounting for weather and temporal variations. We supplement these maps with input from city planners and community groups who help us hone in on particularly problematic areas.
Complete data sets are merged to create more granular maps composed of thousands of small polygons (res-13, for the enthusiasts reading this), which are then overlaid with restrictions and/or speed rules per city regulations. Because the boundaries between streets, sidewalks, bike lanes, and plazas can often shift, periodic updates to these maps are critical to maintain a high level of compliance.
Collaboration for safer streets
Consistent with Mayor Sadiq-Khan’s ambitious Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2041, TfL’s Director of Transport Innovation, Michael Hurwitz, recently declared, “Safety will be our number one priority during this e-scooter rental trial.” To achieve Vision Zero, e-scooter operators must do their part, and that starts with delivering on the promise of safe vehicles.
Haya Verwoord Douidri is Vice President, EMEA at Superpedestrian. An urbanist, mobility, & sustainability expert and thought leader in tech & innovation policies, Haya has a Masters Degree in Sustainable Policy from Columbia University in the city of New York. A frequent international keynote speaker on shared mobility, transport innovation and micro mobility policies, Haya has experience working in more than 20 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa. Haya is a polyglot and speaks 8 languages.
