Voi Partners With Luna

Micromobility startup Luna and Voi Technology, Europe’s leading e-scooter operator are partnering to provide world-first computer vision for e-scooters, which will be integrated on Voi’s fleet so that scooters can sense their environment and react accordingly to protect riders and pedestrians. With the integration of this technology, Voi becomes the first scooter operator in the world to offer real-time pedestrian detection, similar to that available in high-end cars.

The technology, which relies on high-end camera sensors and Edge AI algorithms, ensures a sophisticated level of pedestrian detection, allowing an e-scooter to understand if it is in a heavily pedestrianised area and react accordingly based on predefined parameters. It will also equip e-scooters to detect the kind of surface or lane they are riding on (bike lane, pavement, road), and again react accordingly depending on Voi’s/the city safety parameters.

The global partnership between Luna and Voi will also address other smart city technologies for shared micromobility to improve the operational efficiency of e-scooter fleets, accelerating and sustaining their large-scale deployment for the benefit of citizens, authorities as well as the environment.

As part of a wider partnership with Voi, Luna will also provide the Swedish micromobility company with precise positioning technology for the purposes of controlling parking to centimetre-level accuracy in designated areas, thereby removing street clutter that could be especially hazardous to people who are visually impaired. This cm-level accurate, next-generation GPS technology will also improve operational and environmental efficiency for Voi, thereby accelerating and sustaining the deployment of low cost, socially distanced e-scooters, for the benefit of citizens, the local community, as well as local and national authorities.

Trials commence as part of a first phase global roll-out this week in Northampton, UK, which will focus on pedestrian detection. This first phase, which focuses on data collection, will see the local Voi operations team use Luna’s technology to enable scooters to learn their environment. Once this phase is complete, Luna’s technology will be integrated into Voi’s e-scooters for public use in the city. Northampton’s e-scooter trial is part of a UK wide government-led initiative to introduce e-scooters to the public as an innovative, safe, carbon-neutral and socially distanced mode of transport.

Since launching two years ago Voi has racked up over 30 million rides. In September, the operator was appointed by Northamptonshire County Council as the sole e-scooter operator in the county. In the same month, Voi was also selected to provide e-scooters in the West Midlands in what is to date Europe’s largest ever e-scooter contract award.

Fredrik Hjelm, co-founder and CEO of Voi Technology, said: “We are embracing this kind of pioneering technology so that we can help create cities for living, and to ensure that municipal authorities feel confident in including e-scooters as part of their smart city strategies. We’ve covered more than 30 million rides to date and are acutely aware of the issues that surround e-scooter safety. We believe in educating riders, but also in providing them with the kind of technology that supports them to use e-scooters responsibly. Luna’s solution answers some of the big challenges our sector has faced since day one – including pavement riding and street clutter. The global implications of this are fundamentally game-changing in terms of supporting the wide-scale adoption of e-scooters. We are very proud to be the first to integrate it for the benefit of our riders, pedestrians and authorities.”

Andrew Fleury, co-founder & CEO, Luna: “As shared e-scooters continue to be rolled out in cities across the world, they need to become smarter and safer – for the benefit of riders, pedestrians and cities. We are delighted to be working with Voi, especially as they have prioritised safety and smart city innovation from the outset of the shared e-scooter industry. With this trial, we look forward in particular to exploring how computer vision equipped e-scooters can improve the experience for riders, pedestrians, vulnerable road users, the Voi operations team, as well as local authorities themselves. The onus to date has been on pedestrians to detect, avoid and navigate around scooters. Luna’s smart scooter technology flips that around and allows operators and cities to govern their fleets better and avoid these conflicts, to begin with.”

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