Lime on Wednesday unveiled two innovations to combat misbehavior by its users. The operator of self-service scooters and bicycles, present in Paris (intramuros, as well as in Nogent-sur-Marne and La Défense), Marseille, Bordeaux and Le Havre, wants to fight against incivility.
This action comes as there have been two fatal accidents in France in recent weeks. The first in Nice, with a child hit by a scooter, and the second in Le Havre, where a Lime user was hit by a motorist.
Slow speed and beep
The first innovation aims to detect and deter traffic on sidewalks using a device called “Lime Vision”, developed in-house. Through a camera and an artificial intelligence system, the scooter will be able to identify in real time that a user is rolling on a sidewalk, with a demonstration carried out this Wednesday in Paris where a BFM Paris team was present.
The technology then gradually reduces the speed of the scooter and alerts the driver, as well as surrounding pedestrians, with a short sound signal, to invite them to return to the bike lane or the road, thus avoiding the risk of collision with the pedestrian and other sidewalk users,” Lime said in a statement.
The system can be adapted to each city where road surfaces and sidewalks can be very varied. A technology that will be deployed by the end of the year in the Parisian region, the first march of Lime, presented in addition to 200 cities in the world, avant d’être deployed in Etats-Unis et sur toute la flotte à plus Long-term. What they already anticipate new uses for “Lime Vision”.
“Sidewalk detection is just the first application of this computer vision system which has extremely significant potential,” Bastien Cransac, director of Lime’s Western Europe region, is quoted as saying in the press release.
Lime could provide cities with valuable data to identify areas where users use sidewalks the most and thus “inform infrastructure decisions, such as defining where new bike lanes will be most useful.”
Alcohol: a reactivity test after 10 pm
Another feature to be released soon: a reactivity test that will be carried out in the Lime app if a user borrows a scooter after 10pm. A new step after the establishment of a message to educate users not to drive while intoxicated.
This test, which can be compared to a game of reflexes, “is activated before the vehicle is unlocked and allows the driver to self-assess his reaction speed and therefore his driving ability. In the event of insufficient reaction, the vehicle cannot be unlocked.”
This could deter drunk riders from waiting or taking other transportation to return to or continue their evening, particularly when referring to Lime’s partner app Uber.
In July 2021, the operator Bird (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux and Annecy in France) tested a “secure boot” feature.
“Between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., users attempting to unlock a Bird will now be required to verify that they can safely drive the vehicle by correctly entering a keyword into the app,” a statement said at the time. . A simple password, but which was already aimed at raising awareness about its ability or not to lead users.
The feature was to be rolled out in all cities where Bird operates, except for Marseille where the service ends at 10pm.
Source: BFM TV
