Luna, JumpWatts leap at chance to explore Smart City micro-mobility solutions
Irish ‘smart scooter’ technology company Luna has announced a partnership with U.S. based company JUMPWatts with the aim of combining ‘teleoperation’ and computer vision technology, to improve the safety and operational efficiency of shared electric scooter fleets for riders, pedestrians, operators and cities. The companies are planning to work together on a pilot project in the Smart DCU Campus in Dublin.
The partnership aims to provide a solution to the escalating global problem of e-scooters being in the wrong location relative to user demand and cluttering footpaths, leading to inconvenience and hazards – particularly for wheelchair users and the visually impaired.
JUMPWatts, a Los Angeles based micromobility teleoperations start-up, has created ‘Virtual Valet’, a suite of technologies that allows any e-scooter to right itself if tipped-over, remotely re-position itself to a designated parking zone, and be summoned by riders to a specific location. Luna provides world-first computer vision solutions to shared micromobility operators, to tackle the issues associated with e-scooter rental schemes, such as footpath/sidewalk riding, pedestrian collision, and improper parking.
Through the combination of both companies’ technologies in this pilot project, it is envisaged that the adoption of shared e-scooter schemes will accelerate greatly by solving key safety and governance issues being identified by city authorities across the globe. JUMPWatts’ teleoperation and autonomous technology combined with Luna’s vision technology will make fleet operations much more cost effective for operators and will make dockless micromobility much more attractive to cities.
The new semi-autonomous fleets enabled by this collaboration will also be able to collect Smart City data ranging from road condition monitoring and crowd analytics to traffic congestion alerts and curbside management applications. The joint technologies will be test-bedded in partnership with Smart DCU, a District of Smart Dublin.
Smart Dublin is an initiative founded by the four Dublin Local Authorities, with the goal of future-proofing the Dublin region by trialing and scaling innovative solutions to a wide range of local challenges.
Article Topics
computer vision | JumpWatts | Luna | mobility | smart city
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