Segway-Ninebot has partnered with Drawbar AI and Luna Systems — Two startups building computer vision technology to detect and correct inappropriate e-scooter rides — are integrating their technology into AI-enabled e-scooters.
The partnership announced at micromobility europe The Amsterdam event is like a cornerstone for Segway.Around this time last year, scooter makers were Released a scooter equipped with AI, the S90L serves as a vertically integrated solution to the scooter’s Advanced Rider Assistance System (ARAS). Rather than retrofitting third-party hardware and software systems to scooters, shared micromobility operators were provided with an integrated platform that included everything from the scooters themselves to intelligent sensors to computer vision models.
The Segway offering came at a time when almost every major electric scooter operator had started introducing it. Some kind of scooter ARAS Then sidewalk driving to win the city would be banned.
According to Tony Ho, Segway’s vice president of business development, Segway has managed to sell about 20,000 S90L units to shared micromobility operators (mainly Lyft), but its spread is somewhat thin. It is said that he noticed. Like many tech companies, Segway spent the last year reshaping its strategy, reaffirming its determination to focus on its core competencies and succeeding. For Segway, this means building the hardware and working with partners to deliver the software.
Drover based in Los Angeles and Dublin-based Luna have led the camera-focused scooter ARAS movement by testing and selling attachable IoT modules to companies like Spin, Voi, Helbiz, Beam and Fenix. .
“When introducing AI-based scooters into new cities, we need to train computer vision systems to learn the city, sidewalks, parking systems and bike lanes,” Ho told TechCrunch. “So in every city that introduces these scooters, there is a huge amount of data that actually needs to be collected, and we also need to build the model in a way that is appropriate for each city.”
Ho said Segway didn’t have the brand bandwidth and resources to handle that scale. That’s where Luna and Drover come in.
Non-exclusive partnerships with startups work in two ways. Customers who purchase his S90L model with camera, processor, CPU and GPU can choose to implement Drover or Luna’s scooter ARAS algorithms from the factory floor. Segway’s software will also be available, but that’s not something the company will focus on or spend a lot of time promoting.
“It’s like building a mini app store for scooters,” said Ho. “We are opening up the platform to any developer, startup or operator, so they can basically take our vehicle and train it with an algorithm and we will let them run the algorithm. It will be a computer that can
Operators who don’t yet own the S90L model but want the scooter’s ARAS capabilities have the option of retrofitting Segway’s new modular AI system called Pilot Edge. The Pilot Edge is basically an add-on box with all the necessary sensors for the scooter ARAS and can integrate Drover or Luna technology.
Segway will accept whatever software the carrier’s customers choose, but the company has signed an agreement with Drover as a preferred software partner. Similarly, Drover encourages customers to purchase his Segway’s hardware platform for both integrated vehicles and standalone computer vision modules.
For Drover and Luna, partnering with Segway means they no longer have to worry about building and deploying hardware, and can instead focus on software development and billing the ARAS scooter monthly. This is a good thing because, as Ho puts it, “hardware is hard.” It’s expensive to build and store inventory that may not sell, and for smaller start-ups, dealing with the supply chain can slash profits.
“It’s a dirty job, but the scale makes it possible,” Ho said. “So if we aggregate everyone’s demand, we can afford to do this at a larger scale and therefore at a lower cost.”
