Melbourne’s e-scooter rental company, Neuron Mobility, will be the first in the world to have AI-powered cameras installed to stop people from riding on the sidewalk before the end of the year.
Neuron Mobility’s 1,250 scooters will have the technology, ScootSafe, which identifies unlawful activity and provides real-time alerts, The Guardian reported. Recurrent violators can potentially be banned from the service.
The advancement came about after a six-month experiment in Melbourne, during which the AI was trained to discriminate between pathways and roadways.
The research uncovered several interesting hotspots for footpath riding, including Elizabeth Street, Flinders Street, and the lower end of Collins Street. It was found that 55% of these events happened in the first or final minute of a trip, frequently as a result of parking stations being inconveniently placed on sidewalks.
According to Jayden Bryant, general manager of Neuron Mobility’s Australia and New Zealand division, their latest artificial intelligence solution, ScootSafe, was poised to revolutionize the way unlawful footpath riding is addressed in Melbourne.
“The ability to provide real-time warnings and alerts at the exact moment a rider decides to enter the footpath can be a significant deterrent,” Bryant told The Riverine Herald. “We are already using the data from our six-month trial to increase our enforcement activity at key times and locations and it has allowed us to be even more targeted with our rider education material so we can improve behaviour.”
Safety issues with e-scooters were highlighted by a recent police campaign in which several bikers were prohibited from riding on pavements. But, the city’s newest mayor, Nicholas Reece, wants to securely include e-scooters into the system since he views them as a sustainable transportation choice.
