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TIER’s new e-scooter brain enhances safety and sustainability of micro-mobility

Posted: 1 June 2023 | | No comments yet

TIER’s new ‘Parrot’ e-scooter brain employs artificial intelligence to detect anti-social riding behaviours like pavement and tandem riding, improving safety and sustainability without complex camera or computer vision systems.

e-scooter brain TIER enhances safety and sustainability of micro-mobility

Credit: TIER Mobility

TIER Mobility has announced that it has showcased its latest artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities designed to accurately detect anti-social riding behaviours on its e-scooters. The breakthrough has been achieved through in-house development of the innovative ‘Parrot’ e-scooter brain, which eliminates the need for complex and fragile camera or computer vision systems.

Pavement riding and tandem riding on e-scooters have been identified as anti-social behaviours that pose risks to pedestrians, other road users and the riders themselves. To address this issue, TIER has been developing a system that can recognise and monitor these behaviours using data from on-board sensors, analysed by AI. The recent demonstrations have shown that e-scooter users who ride on the pavement receive automated warnings, with repeated offenders facing potential bans from the service after their third offense.

The Parrot module incorporates upgraded sensors, wireless systems and computing power. These advancements have empowered the TIER team to introduce new capabilities for their e-scooters, thereby improving customer experience and overall safety.

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Currently being piloted on the streets of London, the Parrot module is set to be installed across TIER’s entire UK fleet of e-scooters in late 2023. Once comprehensive testing is completed, the detection capabilities for pavement and tandem riding will be activated. The micro-mobility operator’s investment in the Parrot module has extended the usable lifespan of its UK e-scooter fleet by an additional three to five years, reducing vehicle emissions per passenger kilometre.

Nuno Simaria, CTO at TIER, said: “While micro-mobility is still a relatively new addition to our streets, the technology we are developing is continuing to evolve at a rapid pace – as the capabilities of our new Parrot computing module shows. The project has challenged the team, but we are now able to create our own hardware, and from that base develop complex software and AI.”

Lawrence Leuschner, Co-founder and CEO of TIER, said: “Anything we can do to increase the working life of our vehicles further reduces the carbon cost of making the vehicle in the first place, improving the overall sustainability of our service. To be able to do that while also creating a platform for us to make our service better for the user, and safer for the public is a rare case of an innovation with no downsides.”