MIT spin-off engineering firm Superpedestrian has unveiled its e-scooter active safety system dubbed ‘Pedestrian Defense’, which can detect and correct sidewalk riding and other unsafe rider behaviours.
The launch of the e-scooter safety solution follows the acquisition of Navmatic, a start-up focused on micromobility safety, enabling the application of its patented Super Fusion technology. Combining multiple sources of real-time vehicle dynamics data the system facilitates accurate and reliable fleet positioning and vehicle control.
Superpedestrian finalised the acquisition of Navmatic in June. Boaz Mamo, CEO Navmatic, said: “We’ve spent years at Navmatic developing the most fine-grained sensor fusion and rider behaviour detection out there.
“With Superpedestrian’s high-quality hardware and smart system operation, we can detect how riders behave, make real-time interventions, and give cities actionable insight into the safety of their streets.
“This is what cities really need to solve the problems associated with e-scooters, and our team is the first and only one to achieve it. We are excited to join Superpedestrian, the technology-leading micromobility player.
“Only with Superpedestrian have we found the combination of a company that owns a leading sensing technology and that shares our passion to make cities safer.”
By integrating Navmatic’s Super Fusion technology into Superpedestrian’s existing vehicle intelligence platform, Pedestrian Defense can ensure that unsafe behaviours like sidewalk riding, wrong-way riding, aggressive swerving and repeated hard braking are detected. It can then immediately corrected by slowing or safely stopping the scooter.
The new technology integration also allows Superpedestrian to translate sensor data into other interventions, from direct notifications and incentives for riders, to comprehensive dashboards for policymakers that show safety trends and illustrate locations prone to unsafe behaviour or increased chance of a crash.
Assaf Biderman, CEO of Superpedestrian, said: “Superpedestrian has cracked the code to one of this industry’s biggest challenges. Our e-scooter is unique because it has the computing power and sensors that Navmatic’s Super Fusion needs in order to operate in the field.
“Now, we can scale Pedestrian Defense across our entire fleet and offer riders and cities something no other company has: a real-time solution to aggressive and unlawful riding.”
