This company wants electric scooters to be smarter and safer around pedestrians

Installed on its e-scooters, Voi is testing Luna's technology to help avoid collisions with pedestrians. — Voi/AFP

Electric scooter-sharing service Voi is tackling the issue of safety hazards experienced by pedestrians by developing artificial intelligence (AI) motion detectors to avoid collisions. For this project, Sweden-based Voi has partnered with startup Luna to become the first e-scooter brand to offer real-time pedestrian recognition, in line with what certain car manufacturers already do.

The technology uses high-quality camera detectors linked to several algorithms. It is designed to determine if the scooter is in an area with high pedestrian density and to help it to react accordingly. The companies hope that the tech will also enable e-scooters to be able to automatically detect the type of lane they are riding on (curb, road, bike lane...) in order to adapt their speed.