This article was originally published by Christopher Carey on Cities today, the leading news platform for urban mobility and innovation reaching an international audience of city guides. For the latest updates, see Cities Today Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Youtubeor sign up for Cities Today News.
Escooter company TIER has entered into a partnership with the card provider phantom creating what it claims is the world’s most accurate escooter parking system.
From Paris and York, TIER will implement Fantasmo’s “Camera Positioning System” (CPS), a new positioning technology that is ten times more accurate than GPS and can validate e-scooter parking with a camera phone within 50 centimeters or less.
According to TIER, the new feature will all but eliminate irresponsible parking, an issue that has plagued city councils around the world since the introduction of escooters on the streets.
At the end of their trip, drivers can scan the escooter’s QR code and point their phone’s camera at a nearby building, which Fantasmo uses to confirm they are parked in a city-approved area.
Matthias Laug, CTO and co-founder 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.
“In addition to training our users, we want to provide them with the technology they need to use Escooters safely and responsibly, and this partnership does just that.”
Mapping at ground level
Los Angeles-based Fantasmo uses its camera and foot to create 3D maps of cities on foot Sensor equipped “Explorer” backpack.
The backpack with a 3D mapping solution with a six-camera array, LIDAR, and the associated mobile control app is carried by operators walking through cities. The captured data is then processed into a detailed 3D model of the cities using Fantasmos software.
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The company has so far mapped over 1,800 kilometers of Parisian streets on the ground floor using the technology and claims it is more accurate than satellite-based GPS, which is not always reliable in dense urban areas.
Jameson Detweiler, Co-Founder of Fantasmo, said: “We are very excited to be working with TIER as their commitment to excellent park compliance is the perfect validation of our CPS technology in practice. By mapping cities on the ground floor as pedestrians, we can help ensure that micro-mobility safely thrives in cities around the world. “
Paris crackdown
After an influx of escooters in 2018 and a subsequent increase in complaints from locals frustrated with devices clogging public areas and leading to an increase in accidents, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo put in place a number of measures to address their misuse including fines of 135 euros (US $ 150) for driving on sidewalks and Prohibition parking e-scooters in non-designated areas.
According to the applicable regulations, e-scooters may only be parked in parking spaces for cars and motorized two-wheelers.
Mayor Hidalgo also tightened regulations for e-scooter companies and in July 2020 selected three “official operators” – TIER, Lime and Dott – after 16 scooter-sharing companies responded to the city’s request for suggestions for operation .
Each company received a two-year contract to use 5,000 e-scooters across the city for a total of 15,000 scooters.
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Published on January 23, 2021 – 16:30 UTC
