German micromobility company Tier has partnered with mapping company Fantasmo to create an e-scooter parking system that would reduce street clutter and protect vulnerable road users.
Tier will add Fantasmo’s camera positioning system (CPS) to its e-scooter trials in York and Paris.
The new positioning technology is reportedly 10 times more accurate than GPS and can validate e-scooter parking within 50cm or less with a phone camera alone.
According to Tier, the new feature will all but eliminate irresponsible parking, resolving a major concern for city authorities and people with visual impairment. It also requires no physical infrastructure.
Fantasmo’s 3D maps are ground level, having been recorded by walkers using a sensor equipped ‘explorer’ backpack, which is said to provide more accurate data than satellite-based GPS.
Matthias Laug, CTO of Tier, said: “With this new technology, we can directly address the concerns of vulnerable road users when it comes to how scooters are parked.
“The CPS mapping used by Fantasmo has a distinct advantage over GPS signals, which are often obscured by buildings, poor connectivity, trees, and atmospheric conditions.”
When e-scooter riders are ready to end their ride they scan the e-scooter’s QR code and point a phone camera at a nearby building. Fantasmo can then confirm parking is within a city-approved area.
As with Tier’s previous parking system, any user attempting to park in a no-go area, or outside of a designated parking bay, will not be able to end a ride.
Following the initial York and Paris pilots, the partnership plans to introduce the technology to locations across Tiers’s network of some 85 cities throughout Europe and the Middle East in 2021.
