One of the worst images left by electric scooter rental services is the abandonment of the units in remote areas of the cities. In addition, each service is forced to collect each unit in vans to transport them to the plant and charge the batteries, however, it seems that all that could change thanks to the new idea of Segway-Ninebot.
Segway-Ninebot Kickscooter T-60
The new scooter model presented by Segway (remember that Xiaomi bought the brand) is called Kickscooter T-60 and is characterized by being able to travel only to the nearest charging point without the need for human attention. This ability would allow rental services to save costs in skate transfer personnel and part of the maintenance, thus being able to return or transfer skates to the place of most interest.
The brand itself has announced that Uber and Lift They will be two of the large customers who will start using this new model from next year. This is an advance that will significantly reduce costs, since the simple fact of saving transfers and the staff who make them is a fairly significant cost to take into account.
Taking into account the technology, artificial intelligence and sensors and motors that this new model will include, you may suspect that its price will not be particularly low. To be exact, the price of this T-60 Kickscooter will be 10.000 yuan (about 1.300 euros), an amount that is shocking if we take into account that the company's normal models are between 300 euros.
The first tests will begin next month, although the final models in service will not begin to be seen until the first quarter of 2020. It is very likely that the first units will be seen in the United States, so it will be there that autonomous fleets of skates circulating through the streets as if they were piloted by ghosts.
The smart scooter
The sensors built into this Kickscooter T-60 They will be in charge of detecting obstacles to avoid them and be able to continue with the line. Thanks to geopositioning, the service in charge of the skate will be able to manage the number of scooters per area remotely, since it will order certain units to be placed in certain areas where the demand is higher. In addition, if a customer requests a scooter, the skateboard could go to look for him so that it is available at his doorstep at the time he decides.
According to the promotional videos, the skate would navigate to a resting place, an area where a person would be in charge of manually replacing the batteries with others already 100% charged. For when automatic charging stations?
The advantages of this new model can be enormous in rental services, so we'll see if this model sticks and we see it on the streets in motion. It will be something at least curious to see.