Unveiled by Segway-Ninebot at a product launch in Beijing, China, the KickScooter T60 will commence road testing in September and is expected to hit roads in the first quarter of 2020.
According to Ninebot, the AI-driven scooter, which will be priced at close to £1,166 (US$1,420), will be used by ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, which are expanding into scooter-sharing.
Controlled remotely from the cloud, the T60’s automatic dispatch capability removes the need to manually collect the vehicles for recharging and should ensure the scooter isn’t left idly in public spaces.
Speaking to Reuters, Gao Lufeng, Ninebot chairman and chief executive, said he believes the T60 could radically improve the economics of scooter-sharing. “The pain point for scooter operators is to better maintain the scooters at a lower cost. I believe scooters will replace bicycles as the prime solution for micro-mobility. It’s human nature to save energy when commuting.”
At the same event, Segway-Ninebot, which sold 1.6 million scooters in 2018, also launched two new self-driving delivery robots – the Segway DeliveryBot S2 and Segway Outdoor DeliveryBot X1 – aimed at the food delivery market in China. The DeliveryBot S2 is built for indoors, able to use elevators and can reportedly adapt to any indoor environment.
Segway-Ninebot is in talks with food delivery operators, including Meituan Dianping and Alibaba Group’s Ele.me, to begin service by the first half of next year.
