New electric scooter technology to detect pedestrians and footpath riding in new Northampton pilot

Northampton's e-scooters will be able to sense pedestrian movement and footpath riding with onboard cameras and algorithms, in a new trial rolled out in the town.

The new technology will equip the scooters to know whether they are on a footpath, a bike lane or on the road so Northamptonshire County Council can better understand how they are being used.

Northamptonshire County Councillor Jason Smithers said: “We are delighted to be part of this revolutionary computer vision e-scooter pilot.

"This state of the art technology will support the current trial in Northampton by allowing us to better understand rider and pedestrian behaviour and therefore, integrate e-scooters into our local transport system in a more effective and beneficial way.

"Due to the successes of the trial thus far, we will be looking to expand into other areas, such as Kettering, in the coming weeks.”

A subsequent phase of the trial will see the data being used in order to control each e-scooter’s speed in crowded areas in a safe way, in partnership with computer firm Luna.

Luna’s machine vision technology will enable Voi e-scooters to detect if they are in a heavily pedestrianised area, count the numbers of pedestrians in their immediate path, and react accordingly in real time with alerts, causing the scooters to slow down.

Trials commence as part of a first phase global roll-out this week in Northampton which focuses on data collection before the technology with plans to integrate the technology after Christmas.

Since e-scooters launched in Northampton last month, there have been more than 87,000 rides in the town, with more than 10,300 users registered.

But the launch of the e-scooter trial has evoked strong reaction from Chronicle & Echo readers who have heavily criticised how the scooters are left in the middle of pavements.

Since the roll out of the scheme, the company has introduced more ten more 'ambassadors' to teach riders how to ride safely.

Today (Thursday November 12) the company has said more e-scooters will be introduced to the 300-strong fleet over time.

Fredrik Hjelm, co-founder and CEO of Voi Technology, said: “We are delighted to work with Luna and Northamptonshire County Council to add this extra layer of safety and intelligence to our e-scooters and to see the benefits that computer vision will have for making them smarter and more adaptive to their physical and regulatory environments.

"Being able to equip our e-scooters with this kind of new technology ensures we can tackle footpath riding, bad parking and of course also eliminate any possibility of pedestrian collisions.

"Technology is changing all the time and we are always partnering with the latest solutions to ensure our number one priority - safety.

“We’re thrilled to see so many people in Northampton using our e-scooters to get out and about in a more environmentally friendly way."